


This Isn't Our Fate (But You're Still My Destiny)

by RealistTash



Category: Lexark - Fandom, QTWD, The 100 (TV), clexa - Fandom
Genre: AU, Crossover, F/F, The 100 - Freeform, not graphic but it's in there, qtwd - Freeform, rating changed for death of a child (other character), the 100/qtwd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-12-05
Packaged: 2018-08-16 14:41:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 29,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8106262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RealistTash/pseuds/RealistTash
Summary: “Huh. This isn't your room, Lex.” “Well observed, Clarke.” Lexa rolls her eyes, still fiddling with the strange device held in her hands. “Sarcasm is not the product of a strong mind, Commander.” She jokes. “So, where are we?” -“What. The. Fuck?” She smacks Elyza on the shoulder. “Elyza what the hell is going on? Where are we and why,” she finally looks down at herself and pulls the sheets close to her body and narrows her eyes, “why are we naked?”At that Elyza turns to face her, blinking rapidly to shake the last bit of drowsiness from her head and bites her lip, “I think the question should be 'why wouldn't we be naked?'” Or,Universes collide, leaving Clarke and Lexa in a zombie apocalypse, and Alicia and Elyza in a post nuclear war world.





	1. Chapter One

A loud crash startles Lexa awake and she moves to grab her knife sitting on her bed side table, only to pick up a device foreign to her. A wave of panic flows through her as she takes in her surroundings- the small room covered in white walls, the sheets she lay under scratching against her skin, completely different to the feel of fur she's accustomed to, the small pieces of clothing on her body unlike anything she has ever worn that look more like something a Sky Person would wear.

She feels an arm wrap around her waist and snaps her head to her right, relaxing only slightly at the locks of blonde hair on the pillow next to her. “Lexa, we have no meetings today-”

“Clarke.”

“And you said that we could make use of the little free time we actually get-”

“Clarke.”

“This morning so why are you awake? Unless you plan on waking me up a different way go back to-”

“Clarke.”

“What?”

“Get up.” 

Clarke frowns, noting the serious tone in her girlfriend's voice and sits up. She hasn't glanced away from the green eyes she's staring into to see anything around her, not until said green eyes shift pointedly. Less panicked than Lexa, but just as confused, Clarke spends the next few moments scanning the different place before she looks back, “huh. This isn't your room, Lex.” 

“Well observed, Clarke.” Lexa rolls her eyes, still fiddling with the strange device held in her hands.

“Sarcasm is not the product of a strong mind, Commander.” She jokes. “So, where are we?” 

Lexa runs one hand through her hair. “I'm unsure. I found... this.” She holds the object out to Clarke.

“Hey I know that. It's a cell phone.” At Lexa's frown she continues, “they were used in the old world as a way of communication and gathering information.” 

“So similar to your radios?”

“Kind of. Just-” She plays with the phone, trying different combinations, “damn it.” A hand moves across her own and a new code opens the screen up. Clarke gapes at Lexa who just shrugs in response. “How- what- you know what? Never mind.” She works her way fast around the phone, opening the internet to check the news. “Right, so apparently we are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and we're in the year 2012. Excellent. That doesn't explain why we're here though and not Polis.” 

“This situation is very unsettling, Clarke.”

“I know that, Lexa.” She snaps, taking a deep breath. “Sorry. I'm just- how did we get here? What's happening? Your people believe in reincarnation right? I can't remember dying. And being reborn in the past.”

Lexa wraps her arms around Clarke, and brings her into her own body, “we'll find the answers soon, ai hodnes. For now we should figure out what that crash was.”

“Hey, Lex?” She hears a slight 'hm?' in her ear. “This phone, it's all pictures of you. Lexa?” Another 'hm?'. “Do your people believe in other universes? A universe in which another version of us makes the opposite decision.”

“I suppose that is possible. Our spirit chooses who we are in another lifetime. Who's to say it has to be in the world we know?” 

Clarke pulls back to look at Lexa, a glint of sadness in her eyes. “What if we don't even know each other in this world?”

“Clarke,” she starts with a small smile, “our spirits are the same, but our bodies definitely are not. Which means we fell asleep together. My spirit will always find yours. Now, we need to figure out not only where we are, but who we are. Chances are we also have people in this life. The good news is that we do look the same-”

“Except for the fact that I'm the one with rock hard abs now.” 

“I would love you no matter what body you are in.”

Clarke takes one of Lexa's hands to move it softly over her stomach, watching pupils grow until just a slither of green surrounds black, “you say that, Heda,” Lexa groans at her title, “but don't pretend the only reason you keep pushing me to train is just for my safety.” 

“Clarke, now is not the time for-” A loud knock interrupts them and Lexa sits swiftly in front of Clarke, using her body as a shield- “enter.”

A young man opens the door and looks at the pair strangely. “Alicia, mom said we need to get ready for the supply run. You and Elyza need to be downstairs in ten.” He frowns once more before closing the door behind him.

Clarke's gaze settles on a black leather jacket flung over a chair and stands to retrieve it. She pulls out a wallet, inside is a card with her picture on the front. “Elyza Lex huh? Fitting. Lexa, have a look around, this girl has to have some form of identification. It says here that I'm 19 and Australian. I have no idea what an Australian sounds like.” Lexa cocks her head, gesturing Clarke to continue her explanation. “Australia sunk in the nuclear war. It hasn't existed since.”

“Can you not just use that... cell phone... to look? It obviously exists in this world. We should change before we are summoned again.” 

Clarke uses the phone to do as Lexa suggests, bringing up a video of the accent and tries it out a few times. Realising there is no use in trying without an audience, she looks around for an identity for Lexa while her girlfriend changes in the bathroom. A card falls out of a blue and white jacket as the door opens and she has to hold in a grin. “Well...”

“This does not sit well with me. I do not like it.” She sighs, looking back up to Clarke. “How do I look?”

Clarke smiles and flits her eyes between Lexa and the card before answering in an attempt at an Australian accent. “You look like Alicia Clark. Also fitting. 17 year old student from America.” 

Lexa pulls a face, one that Clarke can only describe as 'teenage', though she'll never voice it. “Play the, video, is it?” Clarke nods and plays it once more. “Not bad. We must be able to pick up certain traits our other selves have.”

“Like you knowing the pass code to the phone.” 

“Yes. You mustn't stray from this accent though, Clarke. We do not know these people. They could be dangerous.” 

Clarke only nods, pulling up a pair of black, skinny jeans she finds on the floor and a white top over her head that was under the leather jacket, sliding that over her arms. She spots a pair of aviators on the table and puts them on to finish. “And how do I look?” 

“Ravishing.” She's pushed up against a wall before Lexa even gets the final syllable out and moans into the kiss. Her moan turns into a whine when lips are no longer against hers, “but we must not keep them waiting any longer.”

“That guy said 'mom' as if you were related. Do you think Alicia has parents and siblings?”

“I guess we shall find out soon... Elyza Lex.” Clarke pauses as Lexa makes her way through the door. 'Elyza' may not sound quite as good as Clarke's own name spilling from Lexa's lips, but damn, it still sounds amazing.

They find the kitchen with four people occupying it in a heated discussion. “No, Elyza will meet us there on her own. That contraption she calls a vehicle is dangerous enough with just one person on it, Chris. There is no way you are going to be on the back of it.” 

Youngest boy there- Chris. Check. “You can't just leave her on her own. After all she's done for us? What if something happens?” 'All she's done for us, eh?' Clarke smirks and raises her eyebrows at Lexa, who in turn rolls her eyes.

“I'll be riding with Elyza.” The conversation halts as four pairs of eyes turn on Lexa. 

“You most certainly will not.” The only woman in the room voices. “We've been through this, Alicia. I'd feel much safer having you with your brother and I.” Mom. Check. 

“Mom.” Lexa forces the word out, “I feel safe with her. I'm going with her. End of discussion.” 

“Alicia-” Lexa raises a single eyebrow before turning away, not even caring that she doesn't know anything about what is being discussed. Nobody defies Heda, apparently. Even in this life. “Elyza I swear if you let anything happen to her.”

“Alicia is more than capable of looking after herself Ms. Clark. Trust me.” 

The woman scoffs, “Ms. Clark? When did you learn manners and stop calling me Madison?” Mom- Madison. Check. 

Clarke shrugs, apparently Elyza was also a bit of a dick. She could have fun with this. “Thought I'd try out something new.” 

“Well don't. Nick, get your sister's bat,” brother- Nick. Check. “And Elyza you'd better stock up. I want you with extra weapons if my daughter is going to be going with you.” 

Lexa chooses that moment to stroll back in, looking at the bat Nick is holding in disgust before shaking her head in the negative. She goes over to the bag that is full of weapons and takes out three pocket knives and one that looks remarkably like her own back in Polis, placing them in strategic places under her clothing. Nick cocks his head at them once more. “What are you planning to do with those when you don't even know how to use them? Or have you two finally put aside your differences and Elyza has been teaching you how to throw them?” 

Both Lexa and Clarke's eyes widen. Shit. At their silence Nick laughs like he knows a secret and joins the older two in leaving out of the front door. Lexa comes beside her to whisper, “there are guns in that bag. We don't know exactly what we are facing or how many but if Elyza is carrying that kind of weaponry, I assume it is bad. Carry as much as you can, just in case.” 

After weighing herself down she turns to join the rest when Chris shouts her, “forgetting something?” He throws a set of keys in her direction and she nods her thanks, finding herself eavesdropping on Nick and Lexa. 

“Spill. You hated her yesterday, and now you're what, gal pals?” 

“Shouldn't we be heading out?” Clarke intervenes, pulling Lexa by her elbow outside but has to stop with her jaw hanging on the floor. “Lex, I have no idea how to drive one of these things.” 

Lexa puts a hand on the small of her back, leaning up to her ear, “you'll know what to do, Clarke. Trust me.” She moves to the motorbike, straddles the back seat and smirks back over to Clarke, who near whimpers at the sight.

“I know what I want to do right now instead.” She sees Lexa bite her lip, smirk widening as she pats the seat in front of her, urging Clarke to get a move on. She brings a small sword and holder from behind her back and winks at Lexa, “by the way, I found something for you. So, where we going?” She shouts over to Nick, just as he's getting into the car.

He looks confused, “the corner grocery store ten minutes away. You should know Elyza, this was you're plan after all.”

“Right, yeah, of course. Silly me.” She starts the bike up, the power and vibrations sending a shiver down her spine and she hears Lexa moan behind her.

“There are some parts of this universe that I very much like.” Her arms wrap around Clarke's waist and her head falls into the crook of Clarke's neck. “Very much like.”

Clarke giggles, leaning back into the touch. “Don't get to comfortable, Lex. We aren't together here.”

“Hm, yes. I apparently hate you. We have also found ourselves an Abby. Since Madison hates you.”

“My mother does not hate you, Lexa. And Madison doesn't hate me. And, well you do seem to be a bit of a brat and I'm this total badass so you're probably just denying your feelings for me. Sound familiar? Speaking of which, I'm going to need you train me, like, now, if we're to pass this game.”

“I will, hodnes, I can't wait.” And with that, they follow the car.

The ride is much shorter than either would like. They did a small amount of research on the situation and put it down to two things to survive. Don't get bitten. Aim for the head. Easy.

They are in the store for five minutes before a walker comes across their path, taken down swiftly by a bullet to the head from Clarke. Everyone bar Lexa turns to her in shock. Surely Elyza Lex knows better than to shoot a gun, drawing loud attention, unless she has to. 

Piles of walkers come barging through, Madison, Chris and the other man yet identified manage to escape to the car quickly, leaving Clarke, Lexa and Nick trapped.

Clarke was shooting every walker in the head first time while Lexa was using her sword to cleanly slice through their necks, but Clarke begins to get over crowded and a walker nearly manages to bite the top of her arm before a pocket knife slashes into it's temple, bringing it to it's knees. 

Clarke grabs Lexa's hand and pushes Nick towards the door, “we need to go. Now.” All of them racing back to the temporary safe-house.

The two head straight upstairs to 'wash all this shit off', but they don't see Nick until Lexa turns to a gun pointed at her head, Clarke has to hold back a laugh at the fact that Lexa actually looks offended. He speaks slowly, “We have fought hundreds of walkers and I have never once seen Elyza Lex get overpowered by them. I have also never in my life seen my sister even be able to hold a knife properly, never mind throw one into a temple fifteen yards away. So one question, and you'd better tell me the truth or a bullet goes straight through both of you. Who are you?”

 

-_-_-_-_-

Elyza wakes gently to a warm body behind her, her skin feeling like it was wrapped in silk and soft fur. She moans in content, grabs the arm that's wrapped around her waist tighter and snuggles deeper into the most comfortable bed she's been in, in ages. 

The body behind her shifts slightly, a sign that she is starting to wake up herself and Elyza just can't help herself when she grips the arm around her waist even tighter. “Lyz?”

“Yeah?”

“Give me my arm back.”

Elyza smirks, still not opening her eyes as she releases the hand, “sorry, Princess.”

Alicia groans and rolls over, sitting up and rubs her eyes of sleep. “How many fucking times have I told you not to call me tha-” Her sentence falls short when her eyes focus and slowly travel the room around her; from the many, many candles highlighting the dark walls, large bed and divider that just slightly separates them to the other section that holds a couch, a couple of chairs and an insane amount of art supplies. “What. The. Fuck?” She smacks Elyza on the shoulder. “Elyza what the hell is going on? Where are we and why,” she finally looks down at herself and pulls the sheets close to her body and narrows her eyes, “why are we naked?” 

At that Elyza turns to face her, blinking rapidly to shake the last bit of drowsiness from her head and bites her lip, “I think the question should be 'why wouldn't we be naked?'” She chuckles at Alicia's unimpressed expression before she frowns. “When did you get a tattoo? That's seriously hot, but I'm pretty sure we weren't drinking last night.”

Looking down at her arm, Alicia wrinkles her nose for a second, “we need to find out what's going on.” She takes the sheet with her getting out of the bed, leaving Elyza completely exposed. With Alicia's back towards her, Elyza can't control the gasp that leaves her lips, accompanied by a breathless 'whoa'. Alicia glances back quickly before a flush takes over her cheeks when she remembers the state of undress she left the other girl in. “What?”

Elyza stands up, walking slowly over to her and runs a finger down her back, choosing not to comment on the shiver she feels under the tip, “you have another one.” She doesn't break physical contact, even when Alicia looks back at her, pupils dilated, but she does look away with a smirk, “and how did you get so ripped overnight?” Alicia huffs and walks over to where she spots clothing, quickly changing into a pair of skinny black trousers and a shoulder-less top, those being the most 'normal' things she finds. She does notice that Elyza stands there watching her every move. “Damn, seriously, Princess. I mean, your ass looks amazing! Well, it always does, but. Damn.” 

“You're such an asshole. Put some fucking clothes on.” 

Elyza spots a dark blue silk kimono, slipping it on and relishing in the soft material sliding along her skin. She walks over to the balcony, eyes widening at the sight that greets her. “Hey, Leesh. Come see this.”

Alicia joins, looking over Elyza's shoulder in wonder. She takes note of the busy sounds coming from far, far below and the miles of greenery spread around what she can only assume is a village at the bottom of this building. “Where are we, Elyza?”

“I honestly have no idea.” She looks over to Alicia with worry in here eyes, “how do you feel? Sick, light headed, any effects what could be drug related?”

Alicia frowns and shakes her head, “no, just, confused. And really creeped out.” Her eyes go wide, panicked as she scans the room once again. “Oh god. Where is everyone? Nick, my mom. We need to find them Elyza!” 

Elyza turns and grabs Alicia's face, thumbs stroking softly along her cheeks in a comforting manner, “hey, calm down. It'll be okay, alright? We can go and look for them, find out what's happening. Just let me get dressed real quick yeah?” 

Before she gets a chance to find something suitable to wear, Alicia stumbles and knocks over a vase on a near by table and the large, wooden doors to the room open immediately, followed by two, almost giant, gruff looking men with spears. Elyza quickly stands in a defensive pose, subtly pushing Alicia behind her. The two men frown to one another before addressing them, “Heda, is everything okay?”

He's looking straight at Alicia, but before she wings an answer, a slightly smaller, fierce looking brunette comes through the doors behind them. “Hey Ryder, Curtis.”

“Oktavia kom Skaikru en Trikru.” Ryder nods in respect, “I shall leave you to your vices.”

She matches his nod as he closes the door before greeting her friend. “Clarke,” she smiles and takes a tentative step back, locking eyes with Alicia, her head bowed, “Heda. Look, Clarke, I know you said that you and Lexa were relaxing this morning, but it's the first morning you've been free for a while and Raven wants to go shopping.” 

Both Elyza and Alicia glance at each other with both fear and confusion in their eyes until Elyza finally looks back at Octavia. “Yeah, sure. Quick question though, who are you?”

“What? Clarke what's with the accent? Oh shit, are you two role playing again, because you know Raven will be pissed if she finds out you didn't invite her this time?” 

Alicia rolls her eyes, the whole situation too confusing for her so she puts her 'resting bitch face' on and introduces herself. “Hi. I'm Alicia Clark. This is Elyza Lex. We aren't from here. Wherever... here is. Whenever... here is.”

Octavia frowns at them and looks back over to Elyza. “Clarke, you didn't tell me Lexa could be funny.” She stutters straight after, cursing herself for being so outspoken, “not that I didn't think you could be funny, Heda, but you know, it's serious business being the commander of thirteen clans and all.” 

“Octavia?” Elyza starts warily, “this isn't a joke. Last night we were in a safe house in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and now we're in this place that is completely foreign to us.” 

Eyes squinting one last time, Octavia shrugs and turns, pretending to believe them, “sure, if you say so,” and with a wicked glint in her eye, she turns back, throwing the knife straight at the wooden frame close to Elyza's head. Her mouth hangs open as Alicia, who she assumed would catch it, squealed and ducked, and Elyza, who she assumed would stand stock still, maybe jump a bit, caught it and proceeded to shove her against a wall with the knife now at her own neck, eyes almost black in rage.

“What the fuck was that?”

Octavia blinks once more, panting. “Holy shit. You're telling the truth. So yeah, you can put me down now.” 

Just as Elyza relaxes and Octavia rubs at her neck, the door opens once more, revealing a very attractive, in Elyza's opinion, girl strutting through like she owns the place. “What's up, guys? So we going on the shopping trip or what? 'Cause I gotta say, Clarke, these new treatments your mom and Nyko have me on are working my leg really good.” 

“Raven, I presume?” 

Raven raises her eyebrow but plays along, “yes, and you are?”

“Elyza Lex.” She takes Raven's hand to shake charmingly, and glances over at Alicia, seeing the glare in her eyes and the frustrated movement of her jaw and smirks. “And this is Alicia Clark.”

The grin near splits Raven's face open with a twinkle in her brown orbs, “are we role playing? Because last time I asked to join in the Commander shut me down in two seconds flat.” 

“No. Raven.” Alicia snarls and the other three seem taken back for a second until Raven grins again.

“Yep, pretty much like that. And seriously Clarke, hot accent. What is it?”

“It's Elyza. And I'm from Australia.”

“How did you find the accent? Australia sunk in the war.” 

“Raven,” Octavia steps up, serious, “this isn't a joke. This really isn't our Clarke and Lexa. The grounders believe in reincarnation, maybe different, parallel, worlds could collide as well.”

Raven squints at them, trying one more thing. “It's probably a good job you turned me down anyway, Princess, I've been meaning to tell you for the past couple of weeks that I finally got the older Griffin to cave and we've been secretly banging in the medical rooms.” 

To her surprise, Elyza lets out a large, barking laugh, looking to Octavia first, “Clarke Griffin?”, receiving a nod, then Alicia, “that's my nickname for you, Princess,” receiving a scoff and finally to Raven, “well if she birthed me, she's probably pretty hot so knock yourself out blackbird.” 

As Raven begins her retort, Alicia steps in again. “Look, I know we all want to pretend that this is all fun and games, but this is a serious problem. I don't know where we are, I don't know where the hell my family is and I'd just really like to know what the fuck is going on.” She slumps down on the sofa, head resting in her hands and she feels a comfortable weight behind her, Elyza wrapping her arms around her waist and she lets herself, for just a moment, embrace the warmth she's given. 

Octavia and Raven glance to each other, only ever having seen the Commander break down like this once, and that was when Clarke had been trapped in a cave for two days due to a storm and she couldn't get word out. “There is a story on the Ark. It's said that in 2084, microscopes picked up two black holes colliding. There's no evidence to support this, and even in all the years, they have never figured out what a black hole truly is. But some people, not 'real' scientists of course, believe that they could lead to another world, an opposite world, that if they even slightly bump into each other, it could have a domino effect.”

“Octavia that story is bullshit and you know it.”

“Do I? I think the fact that we have a very much not Clarke Griffin and a very much not Leksa kom Trikru sitting here begs to differ.”

Elyza flits between the two, weighing up what was just said. “2084? What year is it now?” 

“2150. Why?”

“We left 2012. Octavia, if what you're saying could even remotely be true, what happened here? What's an Ark? Why does it look like the people here are either stuck way in the past or, well, I guess, a shorter past?”

“Whoa, blondie. That's a lot of questions. First we need to decide how we are going to play this. Polis can't not have a Commander, there'd be another war before we even leave the building. Wait Alicia, can you even fight? Lexa is like, ultimate warrior.”

Completely ignoring if Alicia answers or not, Octavia continues, directing her voice to only Raven. “Elyza can. We can say that Lexa has come down with something, we'll have to inform Nyko and Abby-”

“No way. Abby can not know about this. She already hates Lex-”

“She doesn't hate her.”

“Yes she does.”

'She doesn't', Octavia mouths over the to pair growing confused and restless once again. “I mean, it's going to have to be something good since I don't think I've ever seen Lexa so much as sniff, but we can work on that later. Meanwhile, I can get Aden to hold the fort. Indra will be there to stand guard and as the newly appointed flemkipa, obviously I will be too when needed. In that time Elyza and I can train Alicia as much as we can in two days-”

“How long do you think this can last?” Alicia whispers, already missing her mom and brother. And the others.

Raven shrugs sympathetically, “we don't know, that's why we have to train you both to be Clarke and Lexa. Speaking of, are you two together?”

“What? Of course not.” 

Elyza smirks and winks at Raven, mouthing a 'not yet' and Raven shakes her head, “well sucks for you then, Alicia, because Clarke and Lexa are all over each other, public or not. And if anybody thinks for one second that you two aren't the real you, you'll be tied to a tree with a thousand cuts and trust me,” she lifts her top, showing her scars, “I'm not exaggerating.”

The two blanch at the thought and Alicia feels as though she's suddenly on a mission. She sits up, straightens her back and tilts her jaw to the side, eyes burning intensely, very Commander like. “Then let's begin. One last thing before we delve into this history, what's Heda mean?”

Raven and Octavia sigh, yep, this is going to take a while. “Well roughly 98 years ago...”


	2. Chapter Two

“Fuck.” Clarke moans as her back is slammed against the wall. “Lex, I can't again.”

Lexa's whole body is holding her in place, hands held above her head, hot whispers sending shivers down her spine. “Yes, you can.” She smirks, leaning her head down, “give me all you've got, Klark.”

Clarke struggles to push her off, feels a barely there nip to her neck, and when her body acts of its own accord, she hooks her leg between Lexa's, pushing with firm pressure on the ankle her foot meets until she feels the tiniest give. She twists her body free, keeping one of Lexa's wrists in her own to pull it behind her back and reverses their positions, now holding Lexa against the wall, her front moulded perfectly to a sweat-slicked back. “Got you, Heda.”

“But not before I bit you.” Lexa snarls, breath trapped between her lips and brick. “Now,” she twists her own body, gripping at Clarke's hip to move around and free her hand. She twirls them both, leaving Clarke staggering backwards in wild, untamed grass, “again.”

“Lexa, we've been at this for two days straight! I can't train anymore.” 

Her jaw clenches and hand shoots out to the side, a sure sign of frustration, voice low as she speaks. “You must. You have improved greatly, it's true. But Clarke, now is not the time for rest. If we can't stop these things, our fight is over. And I'm not ready to lose you yet. Not in this world, not in this lifetime.” She takes a long breath through her nose, exhales softly out of her mouth. “Not in any lifetime.” 

Clarke steps forward in a rush, her hands holding Lexa's face, blue eyes burn into green and after a few seconds she lets a small smile grace her lips. “Hey, you aren't going to lose me okay? I just need an hour or two, Lex. I need a hot shower and something to eat, then we can go back to you leaving less sexy induced bruises on my skin.” She waits until she sees a slight hint of tilting lips before smirking and pecking them. “Although, with you in that sports bra and getting all sweaty like that it might have to be a cold shower.”

Lexa shoves her away with a small laugh, rolling her eyes, “you have one hour, Clarke.” She gets a wink in return.

“Sha, Commander.”

“You really love her don't you?”

She turns with a raised brow, still uncertain of the details she was forced to tell the man opposite her, but having no choice in which to trust. A sharp nod. “Yes.”

“It must be nice. Finding somebody who you can put your whole self into during hard times.” Nick sighs, taking a seat in a rotting metal chair near her.

Lexa smiles at him, sitting down crossed legged in the grass. “It wasn't easy. And it wasn't always like this. In our world there will never be true peace, as much as we wish for it. There will always be somebody who finds me incapable of leading, always somebody who believes my love for Clarke is weakness. For now, things are settled, but there will come a time when I am yet again challenged, and I will constantly fear that one day, Clarke will be used against me as leverage. 'To be Heda is to be alone'. My only hope is that she will be the one to break that cycle. To prove our people wrong.” 

Nick sighs again, a contemplative face as he chooses his next words. “You know, I still find this whole,” he gestures her up and down, “... thing, so impossible. It's truly like something out of a sci-fi movie.” He chuckles to himself. “But then again, I guess people rising from the dead and wanting to eat our brains is too.” He smiles and looks over her once more. “You're nothing like my sister. I mean, you look like her, you sound like her, and she is sure as hell stubborn,” this earns him a scowl, “but the way you present yourself is just-” He stops, unable to find the words. 

“Different?” A nod. “I was trained to be a warrior from a very young age. All I've ever known is war, survival. Leadership. I was raised in a post nuclear war world. A world that doesn't quite understand science or technology. We didn't even really know what science was until the Sky People fell to Earth, and we had no knowledge of technology what-so-ever. Your sister was on her way to start an education in a world where war, although not extinct, was not ultimately her goal. We are different, because our lives have been different.” 

“I miss her.”

“I'm sorry. I miss my people too.” She stands and wipes her hands on her legs, holding her hand out to Nick. “Let us find something to eat Nik Klark, lukot.” He tilts his head in confusion. “Friend.” 

Nodding once in a silent respect, Nick follows Lexa towards the back door, “she's ready you know? Clarke. Watching her, she's good enough to pass off being Elyza to everybody else. You are obviously a lot faster than what she will be facing. I think she'll be okay on her own.”

“I know. She will still have all of Elyza's muscle memory, she just needs to learn to control it.”

“Then why-”

“Because Clarke can also be very stubborn.” She smirks, leading them to the kitchen and she grabs a sharp knife from her leg strap, cutting up some mostly fresh fruit she'd managed to find in a field nearby.

“Because Clarke can be what, Lex?” 

Her knife stops, back tensing and head slowly turning. “You heard me.” 

“Ladies,” Nick awkwardly interrupts, “need I remind you to use our indoor names and accents whilst inside?”

Lexa shoves a bowl of fruit in front of him and throws a half edible apple at Clarke, “shall we?” She gestures outside and sputters when Clarke walks past, flicking her wet hair in Lexa's face.

Clarke starts a backward strut, moving her finger back and fourth with a smirk and her Australian accent back in full swing, “come at me, Princess.”

Nick grumbles into his bowl as he watches Lexa run out at her, both moving in a large circle, sizing each other up until one of them makes a move, “women.”

It's the blackening sky and cold chill that finally brings Clarke and Lexa to a stop. Well, that and-

“Elyza Lex I swear to all that is good in this world that if you don't bring my daughter back inside right now you will be sleeping out in the rain.” 

“Maybe we should call her the Commander.” Clarke mumbles, taking a seat at the dinner table opposite Travis. Nick had explained in detail who everybody was and ways to act around them to avoid suspicion. He laughs lightly at her glare in his fiancée's direction as she checks over Lexa. Clarke barely manages to hold in her own laugh at the disgusted look on Lexa's face. “Don't worry, Maddie, there's isn't a single hair harmed on Leeshy's pretty little head.” 

Luckily, Nick jumps in before Madison can start yet another argument with Clarke. He doesn't fail to notice how much fun Clarke is having with this either. “Mom, calm down. Alicia's training, she's bound to get some bruises. And isn't it better that she learns how to defend herself against these things? We all know Elyza is the best person to help with that.”

“Yeah, Maddie, chill out.” Clarke speaks again, watching in amusement as Madison's neck vain starts to pop.

“So we're going to finish this upstairs. C'mon, Lyz.” Lexa pulls her out of her chair so fast she hardly has time to grab her plate, but she does manage a wink and a giggle to the room before she's dragged out.

Lexa shuts the door behind them with a grin. “You are enjoying yourself far too much.” 

Clarke shrugs, “it's nice not having to worry about starting a war because I said the wrong thing for once. Now come give your girlfriend a massage, you might not be hurt but I ache everywhere.” She lays on the bed, humming in content as Lexa's hands start to work her neck. “I miss home.” She whispers. 

“I do too, ai hodnes. This world is... strange.” Her hands move to Clarke's shoulder blades. “I miss the smell of freshly roasted meat. The herbs used for the tea. Indra. Our people.”

“Careful, Lex, next you'll be telling me you miss Octavia and Raven.”

Her lower back follows. “Hmm, even them I suppose. Octavia is my flemkipa, I trust her as one of my own and Raven... has her... qualities. She can't be all bad if she's your friend.” Down to her thighs. 

Clarke turns to her back, Lexa's hands come to rest on her hips. “I bet you miss your candles the most though right?” She smirks.

Lexa chuckles, “shut up. I mention a new scent once-” a quick kiss stops her sentence. “Most of all, I miss our bed. I miss waking up to you and not having to pretend to be people we are not.” 

“Our bed?” Clarke raises her eyebrow. “You know I still have my own room.”

“Which you never use. We should probably rectify that. Upgrade Lincoln and Octavia. Titus's old room is... less than satisfactory for the two of them. Plus everything you own is in my room anyway.” 

Clarke sits up, her arms snaking around Lexa's neck, “is that your way of officially asking me to move in with you?” 

“Clarke. The second day half of my room was bombarded with art supplies. You already have.” She smiles the soft smile Raven and Octavia tease is her 'for Clarke's eyes only' smile.

Humming, Clarke agrees. “How long do you think we'll be stuck here for?”

Looking into deep blue, Lexa can only shrug, “I wish I knew. I guess we can only hope that one day very soon, whatever brought us here, puts us back.”

“Yeah. I hope so.”

“Come on,” she grabs Clarke's hand, leading her to the bathroom, “we should clean up.” 

She turns the hot tap, letting water fill the tub along with a muscle relaxing bubble bath. Clarke is absent-mindedly running her fingers up and down Lexa's spine as she works, “do you think Alicia would be pissed if she gets back to her body tattooed?”

Clarke pulls Lexa on top of her after she sits on the toilet seat, her fingers continuing to map out all the areas where Lexa should be marked. “Probably. Why, do you miss my tattoos too?” 

Steam is building heavily in the small room, condensation turning the clean mirror foggy. “Your tattoos are beautiful, of course I do. I miss every mark that should be on your body and isn't.” She leans her head down to kiss the top of Lexa's abdomen, “even the one that should be here.”

“The one that nearly killed me, you mean?”

A nod. “The one that makes me value every second. Ai hod yu in, Leksa. I always will.”

“I love you too, Clarke. Otaim.”

-_-_-_-_-_-

“Again.” 

“I've done this fucking speech five times already. I'm not an idiot.”

“And you're not a convincing Lexa. Your voice needs to be more stern, you need to make it so the room only notices you. You are Heda, Alicia, and if you don't start acting like it we're all going to die.” 

“I think you're being a bit over dramatic Octav-”

“Dramatic? I know every detail of this culture. The simple fact that jus drein nou jus daun still stands is a miracle in itself. If the ambassadors believe for a single second that you aren't Lexa and Elyza isn't Clarke, blood must have blood will be back, and it will start with the two of you, followed by me, Raven and probably the whole of Skaikru, so yes, we are doing this speech until I believe you can fool the other ambassadors.”

Alicia locks her jaw, eyes hardening with a heavy sigh, “fine.” 

Halfway through the speech, Elyza and Raven stumble through the door, giggling like a pair of schoolgirls and Alicia lets out a growl when Raven whispers something in her ear, causing Elyza to smirk and wink at her. “That face. That face right there, Alicia, hold it.” Octavia exclaims without turning to see what caused the look in the first place. “Now start again.”

“Later.” 

“No, now.”

Alicia growls again, turning her attention to Octavia now, “I said later, Octavia.” 

“Oh that was good. That was so good. Look I have goosebumps.” 

Having stopped paying attention to Elyza and Raven, Alicia jumps when two arms wrap around her and a kiss is placed on her neck, “hey, baby.”

Alicia scoffs and pulls away from her, “the fuck do you think you're doing?”

Elyza grins at her, pulling her back in at the waist, “what? You need to get used to this if we're going to be a convincing couple.” 

“I think you'd be more convincing with Raven.” 

“Jealous?”

“You wish.” They hadn't noticed that Raven and Octavia had slipped out. “I want to train.”

Elyza grins again, taking off her jacket and falls into stance, “alright, Princess. Come at me.” 

Alicia wastes no time in throwing her first punch, but Elyza blocks it easily, using the forward momentum to twist and kick at the back of Alicia's knee, sending her to the ground. She stands back up with an impressive speed, lunging again, though this time Elyza pushes her against a wall, back snapping into a hard surface, “fuck.”

Elyza steps closer, leg fitting between her own and breath hot on her neck. “Admit you were jealous.” She whispers. “Admit you want me.”

She's shoved back, stumbling towards the bed before another push throws her on it. “It'd have to be true for me to admit it.” 

“Whatever you say, Princess.” With that, she jumps back up, circling for a minute until she makes the first move, leg swiping out but Alicia jumps over it, bringing a boot to her chest to knock her back. She follows through with a back hand that catches Elyza off guard and she tastes the copper before she feels the sting.

“Shit, Elyza, I'm so sorry.” She bends down to assess Elyza's lip and squeals when instead, she's pulled on top of her.

“Don't be. We're training, we're suppose to get hurt.”Alicia barely hears the whispered words, her thumb stroking away the dripping blood, eyes focused on lips. She feels Elyza shift under her and it brings her back to focus, stuttering and standing quickly. A mocking laugh is all that escapes Elyza's mouth as she gets back up, stalking Alicia who steps back a few times until she collides with the nearby table, “why are you fighting this?” 

Her hands grip the edge, gaze burning into blue, “why are you pushing it?” 

Elyza's arms come to rest either side of Alicia, noses brushing and Alicia gasps in a breath, holding it. “Tell me to stop.”

“Lyz-” 

A knock interrupts her and Elyza sighs, “ignore it.” Before the words are even properly out of her mouth the knocking continues. “God damn it. What?” She shouts towards the offending sound.

“Clarke?” Abby says, her head popping through the open gap, “I just came in to check on Lexa, Nyko had other business to attend so I thought I'd do it for him.” She steps fully into the room and notices the dark red covering her daughter's lip. “What the hell happened?” She grips Elyza's jaw before glaring at Alicia, “did you do this?” 

Elyza rolls her eyes at the woman, slipping into her American accent, “Mom. We were sparring, I'm fine and Lexa will be back to her duties tomorrow.” 

“I wish you would be more careful, Clarke. You should not be allowing Lexa to-”

“To what, mom? To train me in case something goes wrong? We do not know how long this peace will last. Is it not better that I learn how to fight with Grounder weapons? We all know that guns are never the answer.”

“But-”

“But nothing, Abi kom Skaikru.” Alicia steps in. “I appreciate your concern for my well-being, but as Clarke said, I shall be back at full strength and continuing my duties tomorrow. For now, we should rest, it has been a long day preparing for the meeting with the ambassadors.” She moves in between the two women, eyeing Abby, “reshop, Abby. We will see you at first light for breakfast.” 

Abby glances back and fourth between them, frowning, but nods slightly anyway, wishing them goodnight. “Still not as bad as Madison.” Elyza laughs, falling silent when she sees a stray tear leak from Alicia's eye. “Hey, what's wrong?”

“I want to go home, Elyza.” She slumps over to the bed, getting under the covers and burying her head into the pillow.

Elyza cautiously approaches, holding back. “What can I do to make this better?”

Alicia looks up at her, green eyes watery and she sniffs, “can you just... hold me? Just for tonight?”

She wastes no time in moving next to her, one arm under Alicia's body, so Alicia's head rests on her shoulder and the other moving to play with her hair, “of course. Whatever you need.” 

Elyza wakes up just as the sun starts streaming through the window, their positions moved so she's spooning Alicia from behind and she brings her hair out of her face. “Leesh, we need to get up soon.”

Green eyes turn to her, blinking away the sleep before she focuses on Elyza's lip, “I'm sorry, again.”

Elyza smiles at her, warmth spreading across her face. “I've already told you not to be sorry. You shouldn't hold back, even just in training, you can't second guess your instincts, that's where you make mistakes.” She smirks now, back to her more playful mood, “besides, you're hot when you're jealous, feel free to take out those frustrations on me anytime you want.” 

Alicia groans and rolls out of bed, stripping off and observing the clothes Octavia has left out for her to wear. “You're ridiculous.” She begins pulling the heavy looking outfit on, moaning when straps don't want to fit right and and zips keep getting caught. “This whole outfit is ridiculous.” 

“Here, let me help.” Elyza stands in front of her, securing all the loose straps Alicia hadn't and finishes her off with the red sash. “Very authoritative.” 

“Yeah?”

She nods, “hm, yeah. I'd let you command me any day.” 

Alicia watches her as she starts on her own outfit and takes a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the day, trying to get into the mind set of what little she knows about Lexa. She doesn't envy the woman she has switched places with, having to control everything, every day, must be exhausting. 

Octavia walks through the door shortly after Elyza has finished, approving with a nod, “let me do your braids.” She notices the cut on Elyza's lip, “everything okay?”

“Peachy. Leeshy just got a bit rough last night.” She winks at Octavia and holds back the laugh at the glare sent her way. “How long do we have?”

“About an hour. Roan arrived a short while ago, he and Ontari are at breakfast right now. You shouldn't have too much of a problem with them, he and Clarke are quite good friends, the Desert Clan and Boat People ambassadors are here also, but they tend to stay in the back, listening. Your biggest issue may be the Rock Line, their new leader is a bit hot-headed and since he's newly appointed, is coming here himself rather than sending one of his kru. There is little need to worry though, Alicia, there are plenty of people in that room who's only job is to protect you. You are more than safe.” 

“And what about after the meeting?”

Octavia finishes the last braid and moves on to Elyza. “You have a training session with the Nitblidas', but that will mainly be me, Lexa is only usually there to observe, sometimes she joins in, but I don't think you're quite ready for that, and then they will have a lesson which you do need to run, but we have practised enough and if you do get stuck I'll be there.”

“It's still super weird that your blood is black, babe.” Elyza quips, still amazed by that nugget of information.

“These meetings with the ambassadors can go on for quite some time, it will probably take up the majority of the day. Elyza, you will be down in the healers hut with Nyko and Lincoln after, Abby has physio with Raven so there's a high chance she won't be there.”

“What a shame.” Comes the sarcastic response. 

Once she's finished, Octavia stands and wipes her hand on her trousers, “ready?”

“As I'll ever be, I guess.”

Alicia and Elyza walk the hallways in awe, Octavia hadn't allowed them to leave the room for fear of raising suspicion, and the tall building, decorated with paintings, sculptures and ornaments leaves them speechless. The atmosphere is buzzing in the grand hall, large bowls of fruits, nuts and freshly made bread litter the long tables and they each grab a small plate before heading to the war room.

Alicia's eyes bug out when she sees 'her' throne, and smirks over at Elyza who looks on in envy. Indra is already there, standing guard in her usual spot as she greets them. “Seken, Wanheda.” She nods and bows to Alicia. “Heda, I am glad to see you on your feet. I hope you are well now.”

“Mochof, Indra. It is nice to be back.” Indra lets a rare, small smile grace her lips and she stands again. 

Elyza watches as Alicia sits on the throne and her mouth drops, she can't resist leaning in to whisper in her ear, “do you have any idea how fucking good you look right now?” She nips it right after her sentence and stands up as if nothing were out of the ordinary, taking her place next to Octavia as the ambassadors begin to filter in. Her smirk doesn't disappear the whole time Alicia's neck bobs with swallowing and a blush covers her pale skin. 

Eventually, all the seats have a person stood in front of them, and Alicia take one more deep breath, channelling her inner Lexa as she begins to speak, “Welcome, warriors of the thirteen clans.”

“Greetings, Commander of the Blood.” They respond in unison. 

“Please, sit. Let us begin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooo... anybody else in the Carmilla fandom and excited as fuck about the film?


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The timelines slightly vary by about half a day, but it needed to be, so just pretend they're in different time zones of America if you need to.
> 
> Major warning: I'm so fucking sorry, but this chapter went pretty dark (I didn't intend for it to go in this direction, but it happened). It involves the death of a child. It's mentioned throughout the whole chapter (including references to Elyza's past). It isn't graphic exactly, but if it's a trigger for you and you want to skip the main event, I suggest you stop reading between Clarke entering the house and leaving it. Elyza's back story isn't hugs and puppies either.

“Elyza, time to go, come on!” A pounding at the door wakes Clarke slowly, Lexa by her side already alert. “Come on, you promised!”

She groans and gets out of bed, ripping open the door with a smirk as Chris's mouth goes slack seeing her in boxers and a tight tank top, “I promised what?” 

“Um...” He shakes his head, eyes pleading into hers in a small whine. “You promised last week you'd take me with you for the next loot.” 

She sighs, “right. Course I did. Sorry, kid. Caffeine. Caffeine is desperately needed. Give me ten minutes yeah.” And she shuts the door. She makes her way over to Lexa to kiss her good morning, “will you be joining us?”

Lexa sits up more, running her fingertips softly over Clarke's hips and sighs, “I have arranged plans with Nick for this morning.”

“Oh yeah? Did you do that during your bonding session with him yesterday in the yard?” She teases and Lexa lets out a small laugh.

“He does not yet know of these plans.” She smirks. “Now go and have your disgusting coffee.”

Clarke laughs, standing up to get dressed for the day with a wistful sigh, “damn I miss coffee. Your people and their herbal tea shit.”

“Our people.” 

“When it involves the lack of coffee, they are your people.” She pulls on her jacket and aviators to finish, bending down once more for a kiss goodbye. “See you in a few hours.”

“Come back to me.” With a smile and nod, Clarke heads out the door leaving Lexa to get ready also. 

She spends a long time looking at herself in the mirror, studying for even the slightest difference in features and except looking slightly younger, finds none. Her gaze travels to her arm, where a faded tattoo lay. She knows Alicia traced her boyfriend's drawing after he died and if it wasn't for the slight dark grey blending with pure white scars, you wouldn't know it was there. It wasn't very neat, but then again, she isn't much of an artist herself. 

Gathering up her clothes from yesterday, she places them in the makeshift basket before heading downstairs where Nick and Madison are seated, “where's Travis?”

“He's checking over the truck, he said it was clinking a bit when we went out the other day.” 

Lexa nods as if she's actually interested and looks over at Nick, “you ready to go?”

“Go where?” Both mother and son ask at the same time and Lexa huffs, addressing only Nick.

“We need to hurry if we are to get back before Elyza.” She takes a set of keys and throws them at him, “you need to take me.” Realising she is meant to be able to drive in this world, Lexa quickly corrects herself. “Safety in numbers, or would you rather me go alone?” 

Nick cocks his head at her, but plays along anyway, “oh yeah, sure, let's go.” 

“Go where?” Madison shouts again to their retreating figures, hand gripping her mug so tight it might crack. 

“Don't worry, mom. We'll be fine.” Nick replies over his shoulder as he enters the car. “So where are we going?” 

“There is a place on the way to where we went the other day. I'll tell you when to stop.” They drive for about five minutes before Lexa tells him to pull over. “We're here.” The store is blacked out, sign hanging off the wall and windows painted black.

“Where's here?” He watches as Lexa knocks on the door, alerting any walkers to their presence and smiles when she hears nothing. Her foot comes down heavy on the weak point of the lock and the door flings open, crashing into a unit behind it. “Is this an art store?” Lexa nods, scanning the rows of supplies. “Why are we risking our lives for an art store?” 

“Clarke is finding this situation more unsettling than she lets on. Drawing helps her take her mind off of such serious situations.”

Nick gapes at her, “wait, let me rephrase, we're risking our lives so your girlfriend can draw?”

She shrugs and nods, “sha. Clarke is an astounding artist.” Grabbing a few accessories- small canvases, charcoal, paint, brushes and pallets, as well as a few other things she has never seen or heard of but assumes Clarke will know what they are- she makes her way back to the car, Nick still slack jaw behind her.

“Is this actually happening? We're risking our lives. For paint?”

Lexa tilts her head in annoyance, “Nik, reiterating your questions in different phrases will not make the outcome of the answer change.” She carefully places the first lot of items in the car before she turns to head back in, “now are you going to help me or not?”

He grumbles after her but follows willingly.

-

“So where did I say I'd take you again?” Clarke asks as she straddles the bike.

“Elyza!” Travis shouts. “Car.”

Clarke scoffs, revving the engine with a hum and Chris ignores his dad in favour of getting on behind her. “The estate to the East. There are a few decent sized homes there, if they haven't been looted already.”

“Ah, yeah. That's right. Well, hold on tight, kid, you're gonna need it.” She speeds off down the empty road, buzzing with the thrill of speed, gaining more and more until everything is a blur and she'll be damned if she doesn't get Raven to make her one of these things when she finally gets home.

If she does.

It takes them a good thirty minutes, even with the motorbike practically flying. Stepping off, she can only imagine how dilated her eyes are and she chuckles at Chris's sick-paled face. “You alright there?”

“Yep, yeah, fine, great, just, one minute.” His hands find his knees and breaths come in deep and long until he eventually stands back up and puffs out his chest, “let's do this.”

They weave through the stone cobbled paths, knocking on doors before they enter but coming up short on supplies, “guess somebody beat us to it.” 

“We should try the top of the hill. They would've cleared the closest houses out first. There could still be extra water or something.”

Clarke nods, walking up the hill in a surprisingly comfortable silence. They find a few resources- pills, tins of food- the further up they go, before they come to a stop at the last house on the very top. She knocks with the tip of the silencer she brought with her and hears a light groan. She steps back, shoving Chris behind her and points the gun around head level, opening the door after. 

Cautiously, she makes her way into the hall, scouting the first room on the left, a dining room, but finds nothing. She hers the groan again, more of a whimper and faults slightly, peeping just her head around the next door, the living room, and her heart sinks when she sees a girl no older than ten crying in the corner, a chunk missing from her arm. The young girl looks up and cowers, as if using the small space of the corner to hide herself further. “Please don't hurt me.” She whispers.

Clarke puts the gun into her boot, her hands spread in peace, “hey, I'm not going to hurt you. What's your name?”

Chris is over her should, whispering, “Elyza she has a bite.”

“Shut up. Go wait by the bike.”

“Elyza we need to kill her before she-”

She whips around, looking him dead in the eye, scared of the look in his and she now understands how serious Nick was when he was explaining the 'Chris Situation' to them. “Go. Wait. By. The. Bike.” She spits, growling when he doesn't move, “Now, Chris!” He scurries away and she waits until she hears the thundering footsteps quiet down before she starts speaking again and moving to the girl. “What's your name?” She tries again, bending down to push some hair out of her face, but the girl flinches, “I won't hurt you.”

“'m Sarah.” Is the quiet, muffled response.

“Hi Sarah, my name's Clarke.”

Sarah looks up, tears in her eyes, streaming though she attempts to wipe them away with her arm. “Clarke?”

“Yeah. Are you here alone?” 

“My family are outside. But I swear, my brother didn't mean to hurt me. We- we were just playing and- and he didn't mean to bite this hard.”

Clarke swallows a lump in her throat, standing slowly to look through the blinds into the back yard, grimacing at the faces of what appears to be Sarah's mom, dad and brother. “Okay Sarah, here's what we're going to do okay? You look tired, so I'm going to tell you a story alright?”

As Sarah's tears start to lighten, she nods weakly, and Clarke can already tell the infection is getting bad. “Can I lay down?”

“Of course.” Clarke sits down on the couch, bringing Sarah's head onto her knees and pulls a blanket over her. “Once upon a time, in a land far, far, far away from here, a group of teenagers came from space to visit the Earth. Now in the beginning, the two cultures didn't get along. Oh no. Not at all. They both had very different ways of living. The Earth People, Grounders, had to survive by hunting, and the Sky People had everything given to them. But eventually the two leaders met, two girls, the Sky Princess and the Ground Commander-”

“Do they fall in love?” Sarah asks sleepily.

“Well now you're just going to ruin the story.”

“I don't care, keep going.”

Clarke takes a breath, running her fingers through Sarah's hair as she speaks. “Well, the Sky Princess and Ground Commander realised they wanted the same thing; peace. But there was a catch. You see, the Sky Princess had a boy that was in love with her, and she went missing for a while. This boy blamed the Grounders, even though it wasn't them, and hurt a lot of them for no reason-”

“No.” Sarah gasps and Clarke chuckles.

“Yes. So when the Commander found out and she finally met with the Princess, she wanted this boy to suffer for what he had done, and the Princess had no choice but to agree because it was the only way they could get the peace they wanted.”

“Boys are stupid.”

“Very much so. They didn't really get along at first, but they respected each others leadership and grew as time went on, turning into something more until one day, the Commander couldn't hold in her feelings for the Princess and kissed her.”

“What did the princess do?” Sarah's eyes close and her head starts to get heavier on Clarke's legs, so she decides to cut the story short.

“Well the Princess was a little shocked, she wasn't expecting it and she ran. But eventually, she knew, deep in her heart, that what she felt for the Commander was like nothing else she ever felt for anybody and they lived-”

“Happily ever after.” With that, Sarah's head finally flops, signalling she was sleeping.

Clarke isn't aware of the tears falling from her eyes until a drop lands on Sarah's brow and she lifts her head, pulling a pillow under it. She pulls her gun, placing a kiss on Sarah's forehead and replaces it with the tip of black metal, “I'm so sorry. Yu gonplei ste odon.” She pulls the trigger. 

It takes her a long time to compose herself, crying into the soft leather of her jacket sleeve, but clouds are approaching and she knows she needs to finish up. She runs her hand down Sarah's cheek one more time before heading out the back to quickly shoot the other three and walk grimly back to her bike. She finds Chris leaning against it with his arms crossed, “did you do it?” She nods. “Good.”

She turns on him, grabbing the scruff of his shirt, voice low and hoarse, “there is nothing good about taking an innocent life, Chris. Especially when that life is a child.”

He looks scared, muttering in his words, “I didn't mean it like that, honest. I meant it's good that she doesn't have to suffer any more, I swear. That's all.” She lets him go and gets back on the bike, but Chris waits a second. “You've killed children before.”

She knows she shouldn't answer, she has no idea what Elyza has done in her life, but she does anyway, “yes.”

Chris hops on behind her and she assumes the conversation is finished. It isn't. “You never talk about your past.”

“You know what you need to know.” She starts the engine and speeds off, ending anything else.

The ride back is a blur and before long she is pulling up outside the safe house, Chris and her working in silence to unpack the rucksacks they have, she takes the bike into the garage and sees Nick sitting with a beer. “Clarke? What's wrong?”

She sniffs once more, schooling her features for the other occupants she's about to see, “where's Lexa?”

“She's upstairs, mom's in the kitchen, be careful.”

With a grateful nod, she braces herself so she doesn't accidentally punch the woman in the face on her way past whatever snarky comment she's going to get and heads through the separating door, and straight away, “you should've been back hours ago.”

“Not now, Madison.”

“You could've endangered Chris's life, do you have no care about other pe-”

“Not now. Madison.” 

“She had to kill a kid today.” Chris whispers, but she still hears it and runs up the stairs as fast as she can go.

Entering the room, Clarke stops at a halt at the sea of art supplies in the corner. She runs her fingers over the different colours of paints, all arranged in colour order, the charcoal in order of shades and textures and the brushes that make her fingertips tingle. “Do you like it?” She spins around to face Lexa leaning on the bathroom door, a timid smile gracing her mouth.

“Is this all for me?”

“Who else would it be for?” She feels her tears start up again and Lexa is soon in front of her, wiping them away, “hey, hey, what's wrong?”

Clarke wraps her arms around Lexa's neck, sobbing into her shoulder. “She was just a child, Lex. She was just a child.”

A look of understanding crosses Lexa's eyes and her arms tighten around Clarke's waist, “you did what you had to do, Klark, it's not your fault. You freed her spirit so it has no way of being trapped inside a body that no longer belongs to her spirit.” She brings Clarke's face up, cradling it in her hands, “listen to me, you did the right thing, ai hodnes, you saved that girl from becoming something she cannot control.” 

Clarke nods and turns in Lexa's arms, looking over at her art supplies again, “thank you, this is amazing.”

“Pro.” 

The sky blackens, and both frown when they look over to the clock to see sunset shouldn't be for another few hours at least. Clarke looks to where the sun is and her eyes widen, “Lexa, what is that?”

There, in front of the sun, are what appears to be two giant, black balls of fire about to collide.

-_-_-_-_-

“Em pleni.” Alicia states, stopping the two ambassadors fighting over a piece of deserted land. She rolls her eyes, wondering for not the first time how Lexa puts up with such redundant arguments, “the land is between both of your lands, draw a line down the middle and do what you will with your half.”

“But Heda-”

She raises her right hand as Octavia instructed her to and smirks when all is silent again. On second thought, she could get used to this. “Do you not think I have better things to be doing with my time than listen to ownership of a piece of land?” Octavia gives her a warning look. “This coalition is a team, it was formed so we can help each other, use each others resources in equal manner. We compromise, you both have needs for this land, but one does not outweigh the other, they are both helpful. Work together, that's what we do.” This time she gets a nod of approval. “If we fight over something as simple as this, what happens when a serious issue arises?”

“Sha, Heda. Our apologies. I guess we can come to a fair solution.” He looks over at the other man and holds his arm out, Alicia watches as both fists are locked around elbows with a small shake.

“This meeting has been going on for a long time and I have a class with my Nitblidas' shortly, so if there is no other order of business we should-”

“Actually, Commander, I do have one issue.”

She sees Octavia tense at the side of her when, Lucas, the new leader of the Rock Line, speaks up. “Speak freely, Lukas.”

“With all due respect, Heda, I do not believe, you, yourself, are as fair between the coalition as you claim to be.”

Alicia watches a few of the ambassadors move to their weapons, as if waiting for him to randomly attack and Octavia bends down to her ear, “you're safe here, Alicia, just tell him to explain himself.”

“Explain.”

“Every clan trains for war, us more than others-”

“Azgeda warriors train six hours per day, everyday, Lukas kom Boudalan, and we spend at least three days each new moon training with Trikru alone. Mind your voice.” Roan speaks up.

“Apologies, King Roan. My intention was not to insult the other clans, I simply meant that all others train for battle, whereas I have only ever seen the minimum Skaikru train.”

Alicia waits for a second, jaw clenching as she picks her words carefully, “and are you planning on attacking my lands?”

Lucas stumbles back slightly in shock, “of course not, Heda, but we know not of others out there. We must always be prepared, we have no clue as to whom may be beyond our lands. Just because the mountain was defeated, does not mean we are safe from things that may cross our boarders.”

“So what is the accusation here? Skaikru offer us medicines we have never heard of, they offer us the technology that helps us communicate between the clans without the unnecessary need for days of travel. You are new, Lukas, but this discussion is now old and I will not hear of it again. The Sky People are apart of our coalition, as equals, and you accusing me of favouritism will not be tolerated. If I need an army, I will call upon your clan, if I need fur blankets for the cold winter, I will call upon Azgeda, and if I need a radio to communicate with others, I will call upon Skaikru. Do you still wish to accuse me of something, Lukas, or do you wish to pretend this never happened?”

All shock that was previously on his face turns to anger, and his muscles strain against his top, Alicia doesn't notice Elyza come to rest her hand on the back of her throne, or Octavia with her hand at the back of her belt where she knows a throwing knife is resting. “We do not need radios, we do not need their medicine. We have survived summer after summer without them, their clan is weak. And a clan can only be weak by having a weak leader.”

Elyza steps forward, “you dare to call my people weak? Me weak? If it wasn't for us you would still be fighting off the Maunon with no clue what was even happening to your people. You're just an overgrown child trying to prove a point of how 'strong' you are. Well guess what? You aren't impressing anybody, you're just making a branwoda of yourself.”

“Klark!” Alicia scolds, and the three girls wince as the implications of Elyza's words sink in. Roan and Indra look on impressed, and the other ambassadors mumble between them.

“You wish me to prove this, Wanheda, I'd be happy to. I challenge you to a duel with the weapon of your choice tomorrow as the sun goes down.”

Elyza gulps for just a moment, before a smirk graces her lips, “challenge accepted.” 

Alicia suddenly stands up, “this meeting is over.” She waits until the ambassadors in the room file out, leaving just herself, Elyza and Octavia. Firstly, she turns to the latter, “so how'd I do?”

Octavia looks between the two in concern, but swallows and answers as best she can, “your accent needs a bit of work, but seeing as you've been 'ill' the past few days, I think you got away with just having a bad throat, maybe make a show of drinking a soothing tea. Your overall presence was pretty good, the differences were very subtle, I don't think anybody picked up on it.”

She breaths out a sigh of relief, “good, that's good. Thank you.”

The room stays awkward for several minutes until Octavia speaks up again. “So I'm going to go train the Nightbloods' and leave you two to, yeah. Good luck, Elyza.” 

They wait until the doors are closed and footsteps are long down the hall, “Leesh-”

“What the hell were you thinking?”

“I'm sorry, okay? But don't worry, I'll beat him.” She shrugs, smug, but the look is quickly wiped off of her face with a rough push to her shoulders.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Another push. “Have you seen the size of him?” Another. “He could kill you!” Her back hits the wall. “You can't die on me.” 

Elyza pushes a stray strand of hair behind Alicia's ear, “I have no plans on leaving you.” She whispers.

Alicia searches her face, eyes flicking between her own and her lips but she catches herself and steps back, mumbling, “I should join Octavia.” 

Watching her go, Elyza composes herself, she doesn't hear the door open. “So you decided to pick a fight with a giant.”

“Word travels fast around here,” she mumbles. It's not a question, and she takes a seat at the table, “Raven. Don't worry about me, I've fought bigger men than him.” 

Raven cocks her head, “I've only seen a bit of your fighting skills. Military?”

Elyza chuckles a dark laugh. “I wish. No. My parents died when I was little, and I was your typical abusive foster home to abusive foster home kid. One day I couldn't stand the beatings anymore and ran away.” Raven nods at her to continue. “There was a man, James, that I ran in to. He took in strays, kept us healthy, taught us how to fight, to protect ourselves. He was a good guy.”

“What happened?”

“He had a gambling problem, got into some heavy shit with some dangerous people. He ended up dragging us down with him. Illegal underground fights, at least one a month for each of us. We were all just kids.”

Raven swallows, dreading the answer to her next question, “what did the winner get?”

“To live another day.” 

“Shit.” She breathes. “How many?” She doesn't need to elaborate on what she means. How many people have you killed?

“I lost count.” Elyza takes in a shaky breath, fidgeting with her hands. “It was bad. Sometimes we were put against men, sometimes against kids that were just trying to survive one day at a time. I reached my limit when I was seventeen, I was put against one of my own, and I just couldn't go through with it, so I found a way to escape, found a shit job, couch surfed with some of the staff, and saved up until I could afford to get away as far as possible. It took a couple years, but I finally managed. I boarded a plan, and by the time I landed, there was news spreading about people coming back from the dead.” She sniffs once before lifting her walls back up. “Found a gun store, stole my precious baby- my motorbike, and took off.”

Raven nods, knowing not to go any deeper into what Elyza had already shared with her and changes to a lighter topic. “And Alicia?”

A soft smile appears on her face, “I ran into her step-brother, Chris. He had a gun held to man's head. The man was dying and he needed to stop him before he turned, which would've been fine, but the look in his eyes, I used to see the same look in the mirror. Cold. Empty. So I did it for him, told him to tell me where he needed to go, I knew he needed help, still needs help. The plan was to just drop him off, and be on my way, but the way his dad and Alicia's mom looked at him,” she almost lets out a growl, but controls herself, “that family is broken, and then Alicia came down the stairs with her snarky attitude and snide comments and-”

“You couldn't leave.” Raven finishes with a smirk. 

Elyza nods once, “exactly.” 

Raven laughs, standing up, “well, that is the grossest thing I've ever heard.” She sees Elyza roll her eyes. “And my sap filter is definitely filled for the day, but if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with Doctor Hot.”

“You aren't really sleeping with Clarke's mom, right?”

“Nah. She's all loved up with Marcus. I just love playing with little Griffin's head.” She goes to leave. “I'll tell Nyko you can't make it today. You should go watch the kids train, it's surprising pretty therapeutic.”

“Raven.” The girls looks back over to her. “Thanks, nobody else knows about this.”

Raven nods, pointing to her leg, “we've all been through our shit, I'm just glad we came out on the good side of it.” And with that she leaves.

Elyza takes her advice and heads over to the training ground to stand by Alicia, both watching Octavia move around three children with a staff. “I'm sorry, Princess.”

Alicia only gives a nod and a small squeeze to her shoulder and they spend the next hour or so just watching in silence. Raven was right, it is pretty relaxing. Familiar, but different.

The sun is far over on the side, ready to set. Elyza manages a glance and her eyes widen when she spots two large, black spheres moving closer together. Before she manages to alert anybody else, a panting Raven is coming at a stop to them, “guys, you need to stop everything right now and come with me.”

She doesn't wait for an answer before she turns back to head to the technology section she had Lexa grant her, but she does hear Octavia order, “Nitblidas' continue your training, I'll be back shortly.” She makes it to the room in record speed, the other three close behind her, “Raven, what's going on?” Octavia asks. 

Raven points to a machine with one hand, while holding up a finger on the other, signalling to give her a minute. “So, after this circus came to light a couple days ago, I thought about Octavia's theory of black holes. Now, the bad news is, the chances of the same black holes colliding is practically impossible. Space has no movement, so once you go one way, that's it, until you enter an atmosphere, you will head in that direction forever.” She notices faces drop as if they've been told a family member just died. “But! I made this machine anyway on the off chance that something quite literally defies the laws of science happens. I back tracked to the night you switched, used my super awesome, totally advanced, out of this worl-”

“Raven.”

“Right, being the absolute genius I am, I used the telescope Monty and I developed ages ago to track the recordings of any black holes around our planet. I got lucky. I took the readings and built this machine to be alerted if they were ever in the same vicinity as the telescope diameter. Those two right there,” she points out of the skyline to the sun, “are your black holes.”

“Meaning?” Alicia asks excitedly.

“Meaning, theoretically, that when those two clash, you could be on your way home.” There is stunned silence for a while and Raven shrugs. “So, I guess it was nice meeting you two?”

She tumbles back with the full weight of Alicia hugging her and smiles when she sees Elyza hugging Octavia. They switch hugging partners and buzz in anticipation as the orbs move closer together.

Out of nowhere, Elyza lets out a full-bellied laugh, causing the others to look at her odd. She wipes the small tear of laughter from her eye and waits until she can breathe properly before speaking, “Man, Clarke is going to be so pissed when she finds out she has to fight a brick wall.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't edited this yet because it's nearly 1:30am but I wanted to get it up since it's been a while. Sorry for any mistakes.
> 
>  
> 
> \--
> 
> Was Raven right?


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Elyza and Lexa are both so disgustingly gay, Madison is the worst, Abby is the best, and Elyza gets to kick ass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Firstly, I'd like to say a big thank you to everybody who has been following and commenting on this story so far. I don't really get time to properly say these things, but know that I appreciate everything.
> 
> Secondly, this chapter is pretty much all fluff. With recent... election... events, I figured you were all in need of some love, support and minimal angst. 
> 
> Thirdly, just remember you are not alone. No matter your race, sexuality, gender, background, status, way of living or anything else that isn't classed as 'socially normal', you are not alone. 
> 
> Lastly, Elyza and Alicia's section of this chapter completely ran away from me so it is much longer than Clexa's section.
> 
> Sorry this took me so long, it was my birthday this week and people keep dragging me out to do things. I don't know how they dare to be honest.
> 
> Enjoy.

The sky is almost midnight black, save for an hour glass figure of light peaking behind the two balls. Lexa, Clarke and Nick had been on the roof for hours watching the two spheres moving closer together at a snails pace. “What do you think they are?” Lexa had asked earlier.

“I dunno, I wasn't the smart one growing up.” Nick shrugged. He left shortly after that when Madison shouted them all down for dinner, but the two weren't interested in anything other than the sky.

They'd been silent ever since and Clarke's finally starting to feel her eyes drop. She rests her head on Lexa's shoulder. “Are you okay, hodnes?”

Clarke hums, snuggling deeper and inhales Lexa's scent, “hm, it's been a long day.”

“It has,” Lexa agrees, a worried frown still on her face, “we should call it a night.”

She feels Clarke shake her head against her shoulder, “no it's fine,” she mumbles through a yawn, “it's still early.” Lexa ignores her as she pulls her in to her lap and stands up, carrying her down the roof bridal style before jumping down lightly onto the small balcony that leads to their room. “Don't drop me.”

Lexa shakes her head fondly as she lays Clarke on the bed, “a little late for that warning.” She strips Clarke down and replaces the clothes with shorts and a top before she settles in next to her.

Clarke's head automatically finds her chest and an arm wraps around her waist, “thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being you.” 

It's not long before Lexa feels Clarke's breaths deepen and she lays looking up at a random spot on the ceiling, her thoughts wondering to their other selves and how they are coping in their world. She amuses herself at what possibilities could arise with somebody as head strong and cocky as Elyza pretending to be a calm, collected and diplomatic Clarke, and somebody as sarcastic and stubborn as Alicia pretending to be herself. She falls asleep hoping that her carefully constructed coalition is still in proper order when she gets back.

Lexa wakes to Clarke humming to herself, paint already covering bits of her clothes and arms. She smiles at the sight, trying to get a glimpse of the canvas, but the lack of light from outside makes it hard. The circles of black now cover the sun to create a candle stick shape of light, and Clarke has moved her supplies to get as much of that light as possible. By the position of it, she'd have to guess it was late morning. She stretches and gets out of bed, wrapping her arms around Clarke's waist, making her jump, “Jesus, Lex, give a girl a bit of warning next time, yeah?” 

“How are you feeling?”

Clarke puts the brush down in a jar of water, turning to face her and wraps her own arms around Lexa's neck, “I'm good.” 

Lexa searches her eyes and nods at the truth she sees in them, “you were fidgeting a lot in your sleep. It's been a while since you've had such a restless night. Not since-” She stops herself at the memory and feels Clarke move a hand to where her scar should be.

Sighing, Clarke also nods, closing her eyes to fight off her thoughts. “I had a few nightmares. It's okay, it's the brains way of dealing with... well... shit.” She smiles softly, turning back in Lexa's arms to carry on.

“What are you painting?”

“I woke up a while ago inspired. It's just a little something for Elyza and Alicia so they don't forget about us.” She feels Lexa begin to get antsy behind her, fingers strumming against her hip and she laughs, “why don't you go for a run or something? I know I'm not a challenging sparring partner and I can feel how much energy you want to burn.” 

Lexa scoffs, “you are a great sparring partner, we should train more often when we get home.”

“Go and run, Lexa. Unless,” she turns again with a smirk, pushing Lexa back until her calves hit the bed, and begins to place kisses up her neck, biting lightly when she reaches her ear, causing a whimper to release from Lexa's throat, “you can think of another way to burn your energy.” 

Lexa takes a deep breath to control herself, but can't help the needy “Klark” that escapes. “We can not. We agreed-”

“You agreed.” She smirks again, running her hand up the inside of Lexa's thigh.

“Klark.” Lexa groans, “beja, ai hodnes.”

Clarke chuckles and sighs dramatically, pulling away. “Fine, fine. Now get dressed and out with you, I have a painting to finish and you're distracting.”

Lexa smiles as she changes, hiding knives in easy access areas, pausing on her way out to kiss Clarke's cheek, “I'll be back soon.”

Before she turns away, Clarke grabs her wrist, “hey,” she caresses her cheek with the back of her knuckles and kisses her properly, “ste klir. Come back to me.”

“Always.”

Lexa jogs down the stairs, halting at the entrance of the kitchen and her mask is fiercely back in place. “Alicia,” Madison starts in distress, Travis and Chris off to the side talking, “have you seen your brother?”

She rolls her eyes at the older woman, grabbing an apple and biting into it, “no.” The roads are quite clear when she starts running. She spots Nick a few streets down on a different roof, staring up at the now figure eight the balls make against the sun, the streets almost completely covered in shadows that shouldn't belong in the morning. She throws the apple at him, hitting him in the side of the head and he moves his attention to frown at her. “Madison is looking for you,” she throws over her shoulder as she continues her pace. 

“Don't care.” Is the answering shout she gets back.

She knows she must have been gone a good hour or two between running, jogging and fast walking when she notices the suns position. She'd stopped in a few places she believed may have had water with no luck, but when she gets to the last house she's relieved to find a couple of bottles and decides it's time she heads back. Clarke was right, this was exactly what she needed. 

At a steady jog, she circles the area to take in the views she had yet to see, not that same-old house next to same-old house changed much. Halfway back though, she realises, she should've gone back the way she came, when, in front of her, she sees a hoard of walkers blocking her path. They seem to have all come from nowhere, since as she turns back, she's trapped by more. It only takes one to notice her before they all come towards her. 

She smirks, grabbing a throwing knife from her ankle and the sword she'd managed to slip past Madison earlier, and takes a breath, “okay. Let's fight.”

-

Clarke has lost track of time, it's not until she has finished the painting she'd started early this morning, looking it over with a proud smile, that she puts the brush down to go and grab some fruit from downstairs. She sees that the sky has blackened off nearly completely, the only glimpses of sun are two 'v' shapes left top and bottom but she doesn't have time to worry, yet again, about what is going on as she frantically worries about Lexa. She races downstairs to find Madison on the couch with a glass filled to the brim of amber fluid. Madison notices her and her eyes are jittering in all directions, “Elyza? Have you seen Nick at all today?”

“Nick? Nick?!” Clarke's mouth is agape as she stares at the woman incredulously.

“Yes. He hasn't been home all day and I don't know where he is.”

“What about Alicia, Madison?” Madison frowns, as if only just realising her daughter isn't there. “Huh? What about her? She went out this morning and she still isn't back!” She's shouting now, and she can feel her accent slipping but in this moment she doesn't care. “Or are you so wrapped up in the world of Nick that you didn't even notice?” 

Madison stands, glass forgotten, as she marches to Clarke, “are you implying I don't care about my daughter?”

Clarke sneers back, “I'm not implying anything, Maddie, I'm flat out saying it. The only time you pay attention to her is when other people are in the room and you want to put on a show.” 

“You know nothing about our family, Elyza. Quite frankly my relationship with my children is none of your business.”

They stare off in competition, until a crash upstairs causes Clarke's eyes to widen and she rushes up there, slamming open the bedroom door just as Lexa stumbles through the window. “Lexa, oh my god.” She runs over to her, catching her before she falls and lays her down, “what happened?”

“Walkers.” Is the simple response she gets. Lexa is covered in scratches, a big gash above her eyebrow causing blood to leak down her face. It's surprisingly surprising to Clarke that her blood is actually red. “I'm okay, they just caught me off guard. Nothing to worry about.” A small smile cracks an already split lip.

Running her hands down Lexa's face, Clarke swallows hard before asking what she knows she needs to, “did they-”

“No. I have not been bitten, Clarke. One of them grabbed me as I was jumping a fence and the fall on the other side was high with broken wood and stones at the bottom. Ai gonplei ste nou odon. ” 

“Thank god.” 

A second later Madison walks through the door, slowly approaching the two. She looks down at Lexa and rubs her thumb softly against the swollen lip, “are you okay, Alicia? What happened?”

“I'm fine. Don't worry about it.”

“You shouldn't have been out there alone.”

Clarke grits her teeth. “Madison, I need warm water, a clean cloth and a couple bandages.” Madison turns to Clarke to argue and Clarke just wants her out of there. Through a clenched jaw and barely parted lips, she manages a, “please.” 

Madison leaves with a stomp and Clarke turns worriedly back to Lexa. “It looks worse than it is, niron, I promise.”

“Yeah, well, I'm your girlfriend, I'm allowed to worry as much as I want.” She grabs a small torch she found in a drawer, “okay, follow the light,” she instructs, watching Lexa's eyes shift back and fourth. “Good, you don't seem to have a concussion.” She feels down her head, across her shoulders, trails a path down her stomach and along her sides, pressing and prodding for any signs of discomfort.

Lexa lets her for a few minutes before she grabs the hands gently, “Klark, stop.” Her own hands come up to Clarke's face, thumbs stroking across her cheek bones. 

Madison soon re-enters with the supplies Clarke had asked for. She dips the cloth in the warm water and goes to clean Lexa's forehead, frowning in confusion when Lexa pulls back. “Wha-”

“Mom,” she forces out, “let Elyza do it. She's trained in this.” 

After a sigh of defeat, Madison stands and nods, “I'll be downstairs if you need me.”

“Nick is on a rooftop down the street by the way.” Lexa sees Madison's face light up and they hear her rush out the front door. “Poor Alicia.” 

Clarke nods in agreement, pressing lightly against Lexa's wounds. It amazes her every time that Lexa doesn't even flinch. “Are you hungry?” She laughs when Lexa's face scrunches up in disgust, “I know the food here isn't what you're used to, but as I've been telling you, you have to eat, babe. And trust me, it's still better than what I got used to on the Ark.” 

“Yes, Reivon gave me one of your packaged rations once. I think it was the most vile thing I have ever eaten, including that time you tried to cook.” 

Clarke snorts, “offended. Last time I try to be romantic for you.”

“Oh is that all it takes?” Lexa jokes, laughing until Clarke pokes her in her side and she pouts, “hey, I'm injured here.” 

“Injured people don't make fun of the person they're suppose to love.” 

Lexa chuckles once more, bringing Clarke over her so she's being straddled. “I am sorry, hodnes, what could I possibly do to make it up to you?” 

Clarke smirks, her hips slowly rolling over Lexa's abs, “I could think of a few things.” 

“Yeah? What kind of things?” Ignoring the pain in her split lip, Lexa bends her head to Clarke's neck, biting softly over her pulse point. 

Clarke gasps, “Leksa.” She grips Lexa's neck bringing her into a rough kiss, the metallic taste of blood doing nothing but urge her to push harder. She thinks this time Lexa might actually give in, knowing all too well how riled up she gets after a fight. 

“Clarke, get your hands off of my sister.” 

Lexa chuckles once more after she hears Clarke growl, running her hands up and down her back in a soothing manner. “She's not your sister, Nick.” 

“Still her body. We had an agreement, Commander.” He directs Lexa's title to her in a sarcastic manner and she lifts Clarke off her, standing with a snarl.

“I will always honour my agreements, Nik. And you have been a good friend so far. However, you should consider yourself lucky that we are not in my world right now.” 

Nick gulps only marginally before clearing his throat. “I brought you some food, mom told me what happened so I assume you haven't eaten yet. Sorry, she was on my case and it just put me in a bad mood.”

He holds the plate out to them, “apology accepted. I understand Madison can be some what... aggressive, in her concern.” Lexa takes the plate from him, “Thank you.” He nods and closes the door behind him, still looking with a warning look between the two of them, but says nothing more. As she turns, she sees Clarke moving the bed so it faces out of the window, “what are you doing?” Placing the plate on the bed side table, she finally observes the painting in the corner. “This is beautiful.” 

Smiling, Clarke walks over and places a hand on Lexa's shoulder, “thanks.” Sliding her hand down until she meets Lexa's hand, she pulls her over to the bed, sinking them both to the mattress as she places her head on Lexa's shoulder. “I know we've been thorough a lot to get where we are right now, but everything that has happened just these past two days alone...” She trails off, shaking her head. “I don't envy Alicia and Elyza at all.” Lexa can only hold her closer in response, stroking softly through blonde hair as they both watch the black orbs that are nearly joined in the middle, leaving no trace of sunlight except a highlighted glow. “We should probably be more scared of this than we actually are.”

“We shouldn't fear the unknown, Clarke. Whatever those things are, they are there for a reason.” 

“Tomorrow,” Clarke leans her head up, thumbs tracing Lexa's jaw, “tomorrow, can we just stay in bed all day? I'd just rather not remember life for a few hours.”

Lexa turns her head to place a kiss in Clarke's palm, “we can do whatever you want.”

“Octavia is going to be so annoyed that you and I have beat her and Lincoln on the destiny scale.”

“I have never once doubted that our souls belong together.”

Clarke chuckles against her, “honestly, Lex, I love you, but sometimes you really do out-gay yourself.”

“You are just jealous that I'm better at being romantic than you.”

“Whatever.”

Falling into a comfortable silence as they watch the sky get impossibly darker, both are fast asleep before the two black holes overlap in the middle.

-_-_-_-_-_

“So,” Raven starts off awkwardly after half an hour of near no movement, “this might take a while.” Elyza and Octavia look at her confused, while Alicia just rolls her eyes and slumps on a table. “Well you know how I said once something starts moving in space it will move that way forever unless something diverts it?” Nods. “The same goes for speed. The first night this happened, it was in the space of twenty minutes or so, which is why nobody noticed two giant balls of black fire. If you throw a tennis ball in space, it will travel at that speed until it hits something, the same as direction, if you poke it even slightly, it will travel at that speed until it hits something. My theory is that the black holes somehow changed to the opposite direction and whatever made that happen, has obviously slowed them down.” She types some figures into a different machine. “By my calculations I'd say that they are moving at an equivalent rate of three hundred to four hundred miles per hour, which seems fast, but they looks closer than they actually are from out point of view.” 

“So how long does that give us?”

“Assuming you'll go back when the centres align, I'd say maybe a day, day and half.” She hears Alicia mutter a 'fucking fantastic' but pays no attention as she looks over her figures again. “Damn, I mean, I already know I'm a genius but I've really outdone myself this time.” She sighs wistfully, “if only Stephen Hawking was alive to see this.”

“Wait you have a Stephen Hawking in this world too?”

“You mean the greatest theoretical mind in the history of humanity? Duh. He's probably in every universe.”

“No fucking way. That's so cool,” Elyza beams, glancing over to Alicia, “right, babe?”

Alicia rolls her eyes again, “yeah. So cool. So basically we're stuck here for another day is what you're saying.” It's a statement, but Raven nods anyway. She looks over to Elyza, “looks like you'll be fighting after all, babe.” She finger quotes the last word in sarcasm. 

“I know you're being sarcastic right now, but that pet name for me sounds really hot coming out of your mouth.” 

“Look this is, way to confusing for me.” Octavia starts. “In a way I'm grateful that you'll be here for the fight, Elyza, because as much as I love Clarke, there's no way in hell she'd win that and Lexa would probably go on a rampage if she found out about this. At me. A rampage at me. And I'd rather not live through that, so, I'm going to cancel the Nitblida class and move the fight forward to tomorrow morning.” She finalises her rambling with a nod.

“Why reschedule the fight?”

Octavia smirks, “I have my reasons.” She looks over to Elyza, “I suggest you get as much rest as you can. You may think this is going to be an easy win for you, but remember, you have to win this fight as Clarke, not Elyza.” 

The next morning comes far too quickly for Alicia, but Elyza's pumped, playfully punching and ducking around the air and she can't help but let a small grin grace her lips. She walks over to her, placing a hand around Elyza's elbow and yelps when she's turned around, her back to Elyza's front. “You shouldn't sneak up on a warrior, Princess.” 

Alicia scoffs, “we've been here for less than a week and you already think you're a warrior, huh?”

Elyza's grip around Alicia's stomach tightens. “I've always been a warrior. Now I just need a girl worth fighting for.” 

Laughing loudly, Alicia spins in her arms, looking at her incredulously. “Did you just Mulan me?” 

“Maybe.”

“God, you are such a dork.” She continues laughing. “How anybody actually believes you are a self-proclaimed badass I'll never know.” 

Elyza smirks, gripping Alicia's hips as she begins to rock them side to side, twirling her again. “I'm a total badass.” As soon as she feels Alicia relax against her, she continues, “and Mulan saved the whole of China, Leesh. Also, let's be fair, if Disney weren't so scared of change, she would've totally been a lesbian.” She continues her left to right stepping motion, nuzzling into the deep brown locks of Alicia's hair. “You know,” she starts in a whisper, “I know we have to fight so hard to survive in our world, you know, zombies-”

“Please don't use the Z word.”

“Zombies. Run-ins with actual alive people, trying to stay off of the governments radar, starving for days until we can get a good loot, sometimes having no water-”

“What's your point, Lyz?” 

She stops them and turns Alicia back around to face her. “My point is, I know we have it really, really fucking hard in our world, but I actually miss it. Like, I'm not saying this life is a walk in the park, but could you imagine having to practically babysit thousands of people? Having to be careful that just one wrong move or word could literally start a war? Having to stay in control at all times so you're people don't try to kill you? Having no time to just... be? I mean, Lexa didn't even have the chance to just be a kid. I don't envy Clarke and her at all.”

“Well,” Alicia starts, wrapping her arms around Elyza's neck, “you didn't get the opportunity to be a proper kid either.”

Elyza frowns at her, “how do you know t-”

“Oh c'mon. It's not that hard to figure out. You never talk about your life before you met us, you hate and have absolutely no respect for authority, you treat Chris like you want to save him from himself and you're overly protective of the two people in this world that you actually care about. Doesn't take a genius to realise your childhood was shit.” 

“You were wrong about one thing.” Her eyes blaze into Alicia's.

Breath slightly escaping her, Alicia gulps, “what's that?”

“I'm only protective of Chris so that he doesn't lose the plot and harm you. There's only one person in this world I actually care about.” Sensing no resistance, she leans in to finally kiss the girl she's spent months pining over, growling when just as she's a centimetre away, their bedroom door crashes open. She moves to rest her forehead against Alicia's instead, “and apparently the world hates me for it.”

Alicia only chuckles and pushes her away slightly, turning to watch Octavia strolling through. “Hey Elyza, we're going to need to get heading down to the,” she stops mid-strut, eyebrow raising, “sorry, am I interrupting something?”

Elyza unwraps herself completely from Alicia, walking over to Octavia, “no, it's fine. What's up?”

Octavia winces at the tone in her voice, “we need to start heading to the training ground. There's food already set up in the tent.”

Elyza nods, looking back to Alicia, asking with her eyes if she'll be coming, “I'll see you down there in a minute.” Nodding once more, Elyza makes her way out of the room with Octavia, going over their plans once again.

Just as she steadies her breathing, Alicia grabs Lexa's sash off of the chair, securing it in to place as Raven runs through the door, “okay, so don't blame me. It's totally not my fault that she knows, alright? I swear. She drugged me and used her Doctor Hotness to get it out of me.”

Alicia blinks at her, confusion written all over her face. “Raven what the fuck are you talking about?”

Abby walks through the door after her, rolling her eyes. “Raven, I did not drug you. It was your standard sleeping medication. Admittedly, I did use the fact that you hold no secrets when on it against you.” She has the decency to look guilty, but shakes it off quickly, holding her hand out to Alicia. “I believe we have yet to be properly introduced. Hi, I'm Abby Griffin. And you must be Alicia Clark.” 

Alicia's eyes widen, “erm.” She looks at the hand blankly until Abby takes it back. 

Abby sighs and turns to Raven, “thank you, Raven, I have it from here.”

“What? No way in hell am I missing this.”

“Thank you, Raven.” Abby repeats. 

Raven stares between the two with a pout and folds her arms like a child, “fine, but you owe me extra grope-age on our next session, Abby.” 

She leaves, shutting the door behind her and telling the guards not to let anybody in. Abby shakes her head in amusement after her, mumbling something about her being the worst patient ever, but Alicia is blank to everything around her, desperately wishing Elyza was here with her. “It's not all Raven's fault. I knew something wasn't right, I just wasn't expecting this. Obviously.” 

“Erm.” Alicia repeats. It's silent for a few minutes, Alicia trying to find her voice until Abby chuckles low and snaps her out of it. “For somebody who just found out her daughter isn't really her daughter, you seem to be taking this pretty well.” 

Abby smiles and sits on the chair, “technically, she is my daughter. Just a different version of herself. And as much as Clarke hates it, I know her a lot better than she wants to believe I do, and there is no chance she would put herself in the position Elyza has put her in. As for Lexa, she would never stand up to me about Clarke unless she absolutely has to, not in private anyway, which is what you failed to do when I came to check your... illness.” 

Alicia nods, “right.” She runs her hand through her hair in frustration. 

“It's not your fault, Octavia and Raven can't know everything that happens behind closed doors.” Abby raises her eyebrow, “but Raven tells me that you'll be going home soon?” 

Still not able to believe this is happening, Alicia diverts, “how else did you know? It couldn't have just been that two minute conversation.” 

“I told you, I know my daughter. One look at her and I knew something was out of place. If you ever become a mom one day, you'll understand.”

“That's incredible.” She gapes, “I bet my mom hasn't noticed a single thing is different.” She takes a seat opposite Abby.

“Are you two not close?” 

Alicia lets out a sarcastic laugh, “that's an understatement. No. I tried, I tried so hard to be the perfect daughter. I never got into trouble, had good grades, I was going to Berkeley for fuck sake. But she only cares about the drug-addict son that left us more than once, even recently he only came back because there was nowhere else after he had to escape getting captured by military bandits.” She stops herself, unsure why she's spilling everything to woman she doesn't even know, but figures she's never going to see her again after today so why not?

“And you and your brother? Are you close?”

“That's a hard question to answer. We aren't exactly close, but we always know how the other is feeling and we'll always do whatever is needed to protect each other. It's strange, I hated him for so long for mom always putting him first, even though I knew it wasn't his fault.”

Abby reaches over to clasp her hand, “it's understandable.”

“Is it?” Alicia shakes her head. “I don't know. Everything is just so messed up.”

“And Elyza?”

“She makes it better.” Laughing to herself, she figures she might as well carry on now she's started. “She's rude, stubborn, sarcastic, has no respect for personal space or boundaries, she can be a complete asshole sometimes, but she makes life feel some-what normal because of that.” Shrugging she finishes. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you hate Lexa so much? I mean, Octavia and Raven told us the story, quizzed us relentlessly afterwards in fact, and everyone seems to hate her because she what? Betrayed you on a mountain fucking ages ago? Like, one; you all really need to get over that shit, as if you wouldn't have done the same, and two; I'm sorry if I'm overstepping, but she didn't betray you. From the way it's been told, Lexa had absolutely no obligation to any of you, the only person she betrayed was Clarke.”

Abby stares at her for a long time and Alicia starts to feel uncomfortable under her gaze, readying herself to quip, but Abby beats her to it, laughing. “I don't hate Lexa. Yes, sometimes I don't agree with the way she does things, and you have to understand, when I came in to her face bleeding the other day, maternal instincts kicked in. Obviously I'm going to blame the person next to her, regardless of if that person is Lexa or not.”

“That, actually makes sense, but you know Lexa loves her right? She wouldn't lay a finger on her. So why the hard time?”

Abby smiles gently again, gripping her hand a bit tighter before letting go, “I know she wouldn't. And I'm a mom. It's my prerogative as a parent to intimidate the person my child is seeing.”

Alicia laughs, feeling surprisingly free after letting everything out. “Thanks, you're a good mom. Clarke is lucky to have you. I didn't realise how much I needed that. In our world, it's a miracle every day that we are able to survive, it takes it toll.”

“You're a smart girl, Alicia, I'm not going to say that you and your mom will fix things because I don't know her, but if this extremely bizarre situation is anything to go by, you have a least one person who is destined to care about you.” Abby winks at her with a small smirk. 

Giggling, Alicia shakes her head, “she wishes.” She goes serious one last time when Abby studies her again, and she hates it. “I can't. I already told you it's hard surviving like that, the way we're forced to. I can't get close to another person just to lose them again.”

“In the words of a very wise leader, life is about more than just surviving.” Abby grins, walking to the door, “now let's go see your girl kick his butt.”

“Who said that?”

Opening the door, Abby gives her a tender look, “Clarke.” Alicia nods, following Abby out the door, noticing the lack of guards when they knock into something. “Raven!” 

Raven has the conscience to look at least a little sheepish as she holds her hands up in surrender, “I heard nothing. I definitely did not have my ear pressed against the door.” 

Abby rubs over her eyes, “let's just go and watch this train wreck.”

-

“So you-”

“Have to be on the defensive, not offensive.”

“Right, because-”

“Clarke hasn't had the proper training so she'd go tactical and use his own strength against him. Avoiding his hits in the hopes that he'll tire quickly because he's used to somebody going down in one punch and doesn't concentrate too much on stamina. Octavia, this isn't my first rodeo.” 

“I know but- wait, what's a rodeo?” 

Elyza looks at her unimpressed. “Stop worrying, I'll make this look good. I'll let him get a few hits in and then make it look like Clarke got a lucky punch in or something when he starts to weaken. Chill, sweetheart.” She shoves a handful of nuts in her mouth.

Octavia gives her the same look back, “oh no, you aren't giving me one of your silly nicknames. There's no way I'm letting that catch on.” She sees Alicia, Abby and Raven making their way down the path and takes a deep breath. “It's time.” She runs over to them, grabs Alicia and places her on Lexa's throne, watching the crowd gather and Lucas stand at the base of the makeshift stage. 

Elyza wraps her hands, takes her jacket and shirt off, leaving her in tight bindings, stomach bare, that Alicia is trying not to look too long at. Elyza notices though, smirks and winks before going to stand next to her. Raven watches with amusement, bending over to whisper, “this is the part where you give your girlfriend a kiss and wish her luck. There's not a chance that Lexa would let Clarke do this without a kiss good luck.” 

Rolling her eyes, Alicia stands up, a nervous anticipation as she stares into the welcoming eyes she's already spent hours outlining the different shades of blue in. “It's alright, Princess, I'll only bite if you ask me to.” 

“Shut up.” She groans, pulling at Elyza's neck for a quick open-mouthed peck. It lasts for barely a second before Elyza starts to pull back, but Alicia's body betrays her mind, and before she knows what she's doing, her hand grips the back of Elyza's neck harder, teeth pulling at the bottom lip between them and the sound of her groan this time is for a different reason. 

Elyza's hands move to her hips, pulling Alicia flat against her, her tongue running over a plump bottom lip, and just as it reaches to meet Alicia's, a sharp sting in her ribs pulls her back. “Too far.” Octavia growls.

She only grins through a pant, leaning down to whisper in Alicia's ear, “knew you wanted me.” She mumbles.

“That was just for show.”

“That was some kiss just for show, Princess, but whatever helps you sleep at night.”

“I was just playing the role of Lexa.”

Elyza laughs down her ear, sending unwanted shivers down her back, “we can come back to role-playing later.” She stands fully, stretching. “Now, wish me luck.”

Alicia sits back down, looking up at her through her long lashes, “you don't need it.” 

Giving her a genuine, thankful smile, Elyza hops off the stage to stand next to Lucas, snarling at him before facing Octavia. Taking a deep breath to prepare her voice to shout, Octavia begins, “members of the Kongeda, we gather here today to see gona against gona in a fight of strength and intelligence, not to the death, but until one taps out. The loser will stand down as leader of their people. Lukas kom Boudalan, Klark kom Skairkru\- legendary Wanheda, do you agree to these terms?” Watching them both nod, Octavia continues, “Wanheda, the weapon of choice is yours. What do you wish to use?” Elyza pretends to contemplate the weapons in front of her, making an over exaggerated show before she just holds her fists up. She almost laughs when Lucas's grin widens at the 'weapon'. “Very well. You may begin.”

She takes a seat next to Alicia, the other ambassadors in seats behind them, Indra to her left, choosing not to sit and she's amused at the confusion on her face as Elyza circles Lucas, never moving forward to attack, playing along what they had discussed and waiting for him to make a mistake. 

They watch Elyza purposely get thrown around like a rag-doll, and it goes on like this for a while until they finally see Lucas tiring and Elyza is suddenly all speed, sending short, powerful hits against his pressure points as if it were accidental, causing him to stumble and lose his footing. She twists his arm until she hears a pop, choosing to dislocate rather than break. 

It's too late for her to see the knife he had hidden, but luckily not too late for her to move away in time for it to only deeply cut her hand. Octavia is down with the knife against his throat before Elyza even has time to register the pain shooting up her arm, hand going numb. 

The guards around the fight lift Lucas up under his arms, not caring about the pain his dislocation causes, and they look to Alicia for a decision, the fire in her eyes forcing Lucas to look away. “This fight is over, Lukas forfeits his right to lead his people, lock him away and the ambassadors will come to a decision about his fate tomorrow.” She'll let Lexa deal with this.

Pleased with the decision, the others make their leave and Elyza is dragged to the medical bay by Abby, Alicia and Raven following closely behind. Indra stops Octavia on the way, “you have proved well, Seken, there is nothing more I can teach you.”

Octavia bows her head, “mochof, Indra. But don't be a stranger.”

Indra looks over to where Elyza is, “I do believe I shall be taking on another Seken.”

Smirking, Octavia laughs, “I'm sure Clarke will love that.” 

She jogs over, seeing Raven stood outside the door. “Abby locked us out.”

“Rude.”

Elyza is fidgeting on the table, “I'm more than capable of doing my own stitches.” She makes to get up.

“Elyza Lex you sit your ass down and let me take care of you.” Elyza's eyes widen comically and she obeys quickly, looking over at Alicia.

“She knows?”

“Yes, I know. And you're lucky you only let minimal damage happen to Clarke's body or so help me I'd find a way to get to you.” Abby threatens. She injects a numbing serum into Elyza's hand, cleaning the wound after and starts on the stitches. 

Alicia checks her over from the sidelines, “are you okay?”

Scoffing, Elyza nods, “yeah, I'm just pissed that dick didn't let me beat him in a fair fight.” She flinches when Abby digs a bit too deep into her hand, “hey, watch the merchandise, I'm quite fond of my hands you know.” She winks over at Alicia and it causes Abby to only sink deeper, “ouch. Okay, sorry.” 

“Clarke is going to hate you in the morning.”

Elyza shrugs, not really caring too much, “she'll get over it. If she's as awesome as me she'll love this story.”

Abby raises her eyebrow, “well now I know why you and Raven aren't in the same universe. You're both far too egotistical for your own good.”

“I heard that Mama G!” Raven shouts through the door. 

“So what am I like in your world? Am I still your mom?”

Elyza shrugs again, “I'm sorry, Abby, I can't answer that. I lost my parents when I was young, and the system strips you of any possessions like photographs.” Both Alicia and Abby look on in understanding.

“I'm sorry to hear that.”

“It's fine, you learn to deal.” She gives Alicia a look telling her she'll explain everything later. 

“Abby, can I come in please?” Octavia asks.

She stands up and opens the door, “I'm done now anyway.”

Nodding, Octavia glances between them all, “I suggest you say your goodbyes now, I'm taking them to the cliff for their last night.” 

Abby sighs, rushing over to bring Alicia into a long hug, “stay strong.” She turns to Elyza next, pushing away her out hand and forcing her into a hug also. Elyza stiffens but eventually relaxes, “look after her.” 

Gulping back the lump in her throat, Elyza pulls out of the hug, “always.”

Octavia tilts her head for them to follow her and Raven stops them on the way, “don't forget about us, yeah?”

“How could we?” 

They walk in hushed footsteps up a hill, “I know you haven't really had the time to look over our world because I locked you inside for the first two days and everything got a little insane,” Octavia begins, “but I thought you might like a nice view on your last day here.” She looks up to the sky. “They're getting pretty close together, we don't know what will happen when the centres meet but,” they come to the top, a overhang looking out to the forest, “Lexa and Clarke don't think we know they come up here to get away from everything for a couple hours, but it's a badly kept secret that this is Lexa's second favourite view. I thought it would be pretty symbolic for you two to finish here and them to wake up here.”

Elyza brings her in to a one armed hug, “aw, isn't that sweet, sweetheart?” 

“Shut up.” Standing awkwardly, Octavia shifts on her feet, “so, I guess this is it then, huh?” She pulls them both in for a hug, “may we meet again.” And she leaves back down the hill.

Alicia and Elyza look out over the hill, the black holes are blocking out the sun almost completely, meaning the surrounding camps and villages are lit up by fire and it sets a heavy glow across the forest. “This is beautiful, I can see why Clarke and Lexa like it up here.” Alicia states. “So what do we do now?”

Elyza sits down, looking over the view and pulls Alicia on top of her, kissing her temple, “how about we enjoy the scenery, and talk?”

Agreeing, Alicia pulls them both to the ground, her head resting on Elyza's shoulder and they swap funny and serious stories about their pasts until there is no light in the sky, passing out as the centres of the black holes meet.


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lexark get all touchy/feel-y, but we know the world doesn't like to let Elyza have nice things without interruption. Madison is awful and probably always will be.
> 
> Clarke finds redemption for what she had to do in the other world. Lexa is an angry/jealous ball of adorable. Abby is a sentimental drunk. 
> 
> And Octavia? She hasn't got a clue what the hell is going on.

Waking up slowly, the first thing Alicia notices is the soft pillow under her head, her eyes blink lazily until a blurred outline of a window greets them. She bolts up, flopping down again just as quickly with a groan when a pain shoots through her head. This time she takes a steadier approach, lifting herself up cautiously and grins when she looks around her room. She starts to furiously tap next to her, frowning when she feels the other side of the bed is cold.

Standing, she squints her eyes to navigate the room. The sun is still mostly blocked, casting shadows, but it seems now the black holes are moving away from each other, sunlight once again beginning to peak through what little gaps there are. She finds a small torch, using the light to work her way to the wardrobe, but a slither of colour in the corner catches her eye. 

Her fingers softly caress the now dry paint, from the orange glow of the sky, down to the hilly forest covered in huts illuminated by fire pits in the background, the Polis tower off to the side, that blends into a street view, worn out houses paving it until the biggest one at the front, the one closest, the one they are currently in, ends the page. In the top corner of the page, two black holes are clashing, one plain, with a red glow and the other, a mostly black and white picture of Clarke and Lexa, cut off at the shoulders, both in warpaint. The only colour in that particular circle are the blue and green of their eyes, the blue of Clarke's warpaint and the red of the beginning of Lexa's sash. 

On the road in front of their house is Elyza's bike, with Elyza casually leaning up against it, aviators covering her eyes. Looking closely, one lens holds a faded zombie reflection, and the other a faded grounder, complete with mask. What surprises her the most about it, or least surprises her really, is that she is cuddling into Elyza, her arms folded securely around her waist, under Elyza's leather jacket, Elyza's head tilted to make it seem as though her eyes are on Alicia, and Alicia looking over her shoulder, staring straight at the viewer. Clarke has her signature in the far bottom corner. 

It's a masterpiece, she's never seen anything like it and she spends what feels like hours, but has been mere minutes, studying it, trying to memorize every detail. Glancing down, she notices a piece of folded up paper. Opening it up, she assumes the first line is from Clarke, comparing the elegant round hand calligraphy to her signature. It reads: Don't take life for granted, it's about more than just surviving. Don't be afraid to take chances. Be strong. Our souls are inevitable.

Underneath it, she assumes the line is from Lexa, the neat spencerian penmanship written in Trigedasleng: osir'll otaim laik a part kom Yu. Nou teik yur head cloud yur tombom. “We'll always be a part of you. Don't let your head cloud your heart.” She whispers to herself, looking over the painting once more. She changes, wincing when she sees the cut above her eyebrow and the split in her lip in the mirror, “what did that bitch do to me?” She mumbles. 

Running downstairs, she sees Travis eating breakfast, “good morning, Alicia.”

“Morning,” she grumbles back, “have you seen Elyza?” 

“Out back.”

Making her way through the kitchen, she sees her, facing away, practising tai chi and she bites her lip at the back muscles rippling with every move Elyza makes. Slowly, she walks up behind her, yelping when Elyza grabs the hand about to touch her and bringing her around, “what did I tell you about sneaking up on a warrior, Princess?” 

Alicia ignores her, sighing lightly at the hands that grab her hips and her own come to rest on Elyza's shoulders, “we're home.”

“We are.” Elyza nods, smiling.

“Did you see the painting?” She nods again. “And the note?” Another nod. “And?”

Elyza frowns, “and what?”

Shaking her head, Alicia changes the subject, “never mind.” She notices a wrap around Elyza's wrist, “what's that?”

Smirking, Elyza unwraps her wrist, showing Alicia the delicate design of Clarke's warpaint, surrounded by red, dried blood, “I woke up hours ago, saw some inks on the table and went to find a needle. I would've woke you but you looked too peaceful. It's a bit rough, I'm not an artist like Clarke, but I think I did a pretty decent job.”

Alicia ghosts her thumb over it, careful not to touch and cause an infection, she stares into Elyza's eyes with a whispered, “will you do mine?”

“Matching tattoos already?” She winks and Alicia rolls her eyes. “Of course I will, babe. And as for the note? All Clarke did was reiterate what I knew from the moment I saw you.” Glancing around, Alicia grabs Elyza's hands in her own, directing her towards a lone tree at the back of the garden. Her back pushes softly against it, pulling Elyza against her, “not that I'm complaining, but-”

“I'm tired of running.” She leans forward, placing a quick, delicate kiss on soft lips, “I don't care what world we're in, as long as I have you with me.” 

“Well,” Elyza starts, “it's about time you got your head out of your ass, Princess.”

Alicia groans, slamming her head back against the tree, “God, can you not be an asshole for like, five fucking minutes please?”

Her groan quickly turns to a moan when Elyza nips her pulse point, “sorry,” she grumbles, not sounding sorry at all. She pulls back, her uncertain eyes inspecting Alicia's features one last time, “are you sure you want this?” 

“I want everything.” Elyza's mouth is slow and deliberate against her own, a needy whine escaping her throat when Alicia places a thigh between her legs, but their slow pace soon becomes overwhelming and Alicia can't help but change the momentum with a sharp tug to Elyza's bottom lip, teeth clamping down, causing Elyza to whimper into her mouth. She pulls back with a chuckle, “did you just whimper? Did Elyza Fucking Lex just whimper?” 

“Shut up.” Her kisses turn slow again and Alicia grunts in frustration, “shh, I don't want to rush this for you.” 

Alicia yanks her hair, causing a growl to slip free, “we're in the back yard and you have me up against a tree, you can be gentle with me later. Right now I need you to,” a loud moan echoes around them when Elyza hoists Alicia up, wrapping her jean-clad legs around her waist and pushes her abs against her, “fuck.”

“As you wish.” Elyza's teeth bite harshly at Alicia's ear lobe and she continues down her neck, finding the sweet spot again and sucking hard as her stomach rolls against Alicia with more purpose, hands moving up her thighs until they squeeze at her ass, pulling her against the hard rocking motion she starts to set. Alicia's short nails trail to the back of Elyza's neck, grasping firmly and causing little, half moon shaped indentations. 

Resting her forehead against Alicia's and feeling the short pants of breath clash with her own, Elyza moves one hand to tug at the bottom of Alicia's top. Taking the hint fast, Alicia pushes up against Elyza, her back leaving the tree just long enough for her to rip it off and she hisses at the rough bark that scrapes her smooth skin when she's forced back against it. 

Moments later, Alicia pulls back at Elyza's top, almost tearing it in her haste to get it off and swallows Elyza's snicker with a brutal kiss. Their teeth are knocking together in a near painful way but neither seems to care. Elyza's hands skirt up Alicia's sides, thumbs stroking at the under wire of her bra. In the near distance, they hear a twig snap and both freeze. Elyza grabs the small knife at her thigh and throws it just centimetres off where the sounds comes from and they hear it hit the fence, a small squeak shortly following. “What do you want, Chris?” She pants through her words, head lolling back when Alicia takes this advantage to nibble her way down Elyza's chest and she knows she'll wear the bite marks with a proud smirk later. 

“What are you doing behind there?” 

Her hand shoots out to the tree to steady herself as Alicia bites down hard just above her bra and she's glad that not only the tree, but the bushes either side are keeping them in cover. “Training, using the tree as a punching bag.” Alicia looks up through her long lashes, hands moving to undo the button at Elyza's jean shorts. 

“Can I join?”

Alicia smirks at her, unwrapping her legs from Elyza's waist and begins to kneel down, dirty kisses and sharp teeth leading a path down her stomach. “No.” The hand that's not holding the tree tangles into Alicia's hair, pulling to force her to look up at her and she scoffs at the look of innocence she gets in return. 

“Okay,” he sighs, resignation evident, “I just, I wanted to apologise about what happened at the estate. I know I didn't handle it well and-”

“Chris.” She stops him mid sentence, voice straining when Alicia lunges forward to place yet another bite mark, this time at her inner thigh. “We'll talk about this later yeah? I promise. Just let me finish up here and I'll come find you, alright?” She's sure she hears his agreement as he walks away, but she's too focused on lifting Alicia up and shoving her back against the tree where she belongs. “That wasn't very nice,” she hisses, pinching Alicia's hip and placing her thigh for one quick, short, strong thrust, keeping it buried between Alicia's legs, the pressure forcing Alicia onto her tiptoes.

“I never claimed to be nice,” she chokes out, hands leaving bruises on Elyza's upper arms. Because of the sun being blocked, they hadn't noticed the storm clouds in the sky, and when rain suddenly welts down on them, Alicia is thankful for the slight cooling on her heated skin. She's even more thankful when the heavy rain drips down, and the water that soaks them both lets the grind she begins on Elyza's thigh become more rough, the friction of wet jeans causing the seam to rub against her deliciously. The quiet moans and gasps down her ear encourages Elyza to help move Alicia's hips harder and faster, “Lyz.”

“It's okay. I've got you.” She pushes her body harder, leaving no room between her, Alicia and the tree and she groans against Alicia's neck, “Fuck, I can't wait to feel you.”

“I'm not stopping you.” 

“Lexa? Clarke?” A shout carries through the downpour and the light from a torch brightens the back of their eyelids, causing them to rapidly pull apart and pull their tops on, trying desperately to catch their breaths. “Guys? Mom wants Alicia in before she catches a col- what the hell?” Nicks stops, flashing the light between them and they both have to blink through the uncomfortable brightness invading their pupils. “Clarke, how many times do we have to go through this?”

His anger is cut short when Alicia rushes to him, “Nick!” Her arms wrap tightly around him, “I never thought I'd be so happy to see you.”

Nick pulls her back, searching her eyes, “Alicia?” She nods. “Oh thank god, you're back.” He pulls her back in to the hug, squeezing her even tighter.

They both turn to see Elyza yelling at the sky, “why does this always happen to me? I'm not a bad person.” Her answer is a roaring clap of thunder. “Fair enough, granted I'm not a good person either. But you know what I've been through, don't I deserve this?” Booming thunder again is the only thing she gets and she lifts her arms in exasperation, “yeah, well, you know what? Fuck you too.” 

“Erm, Elyza?” Nick hesitates, aiming to get her attention. 

“Lyz, seriously, let's just forget everything that just happened, you're obviously certifiably insane.” Alicia jabs, but her tone is mostly joking and Elyza smiles at her, still glaring at the sky. She turns her attention back to Nick. “So, Clarke and Lexa huh?”

“Yeah well, when Elyza shot a lone walker in the head,” he ignores Elyza's 'rookie', “and you threw a knife into one of their skulls, I knew something was off.” He shrugs it off, but Alicia feels a small tear and hugs him again.

“And mom?”

He gives her a sad look, “sorry, Alicia, she has no clue.”

“Figures.” 

“C'mon, mom went out this morning and found bacon. Breakfast is ready. And a word of warning, Clarke chewed her out about something yesterday, I'm not sure what, but Elyza is definitely not on her good side.” 

She glances at Elyza with a soft smile, “is she ever? We'll be there in a minute.” He tilts his head, turning to head back into the house, spouting a quick 'we'll be talking about you two later, Alicia,' and she reaches out to grasp Elyza's wrist, pulling her in for one more chaste kiss. Elyza moves to fully embrace her, chin resting on Alicia's shoulder as she just holds her, a happy sigh escaping her mouth. 

A small drop of blood lands on Elyza's collar bone and Alicia realises her lip has split again, she pulls back and Elyza winces, pointlessly trying to wipe the blood away in the rain, “sorry. Lexa jumping that fence really did a number on you.” 

“Oh, so that's what happened. I guess I can't be too mad with the state you left Clarke in.” She laughs, taking Elyza's hand in hers and leading her to the house where everybody except Travis sits at the table, cutlery scraping noisily against crockery in the silence. Elyza takes a seat first opposite Chris, Alicia takes the space between her and Madison, who is at the head of the table, and opposite Nick, not caring about their soaking clothes in favour of food. Elyza takes a few pieces of bacon and toast from the centre of the table and dumps all but one bacon rasher on Alicia's plate, aggressively biting the piece in her hand in half, making obnoxious, growling animal noises as she bares her teeth. “You're fucking disgusting.” Alicia scolds, shaking her head. 

Elyza moves her head forward, creating the same sound, but much quieter, directly into Alicia's ear and she smirks at the shiver she receives, “not so disgusting now is it, Princess?” She looks around the table again, hoping the sound she made and how close she just was to Alicia would cause some form of response from Madison, but she pouts when she gets nothing. “Well this isn't awkward at all.” 

“I'm sorry about the other day, Elyza. I never meant to put you in that position.” Chris blurts out, eyes never leaving his plate.

“Chris, you don't have to apologise to her.”

“Yes, Madison, I do. No offence, but you weren't there.” Elyza feels a sharp jab in a rib, upset that Alicia didn't let her present her perfected cat-fight meow after Chris had finished. “So, I'm sorry. You were right, innocent people never deserve to die, especially children, bitten or not, and I never should've acted the way I did. I'm trying, sometimes I just need a push that isn't from somebody close to me, so thank you. And I don't know what happened in that house between you and her, but I'm sure she felt safe in those last few moments.”

Elyza looks taken back and Alicia's eyes soften in empathy, all too aware now of Elyza's past. “Come with me.” She stands up, ordering Chris to follow her out to the garage. “Firstly; thank you for being a real man and apologising, you really didn't have to, and I know it takes guts to admit when you're wrong. Secondly; I've been there myself. The way you feel right now? All that confusion, who should live and who should die, do we play God and kill the walkers or do we let nature run its course and risk them turning on us? It's completely understandable, it's human, but you can't let it consume you, that's when you make mistakes, that's when you end up hurting somebody you care about. I want to help you avoid that. And Chris?” She stops, making sure she still has his full attention and he's hanging on every word she says, “that brings me to the third thing; if you ever, ever lay a finger on her,” she nods her head to the kitchen, “or hurt her in any way, I won't hesitate to put you down for good.” 

Seeing the serious blaze in her eyes, he dips his head once, “noted.” 

She smiles at him, clapping him on the shoulder, “excellent. Now let's head back in, I'm starving.” They walk in to Alicia throwing her plate in the sink, huffing. “Sounds like we missed something good.” 

“Mom doesn't want me staying in the same room as you.” 

“To be quite honest, Elyza, I'd rather not have you in this house anymore.”

“To be fair, Maddie,” Elyza mocks, “you've never wanted me in this house.” 

“You need to leave. You aren't welcome here any longer.” 

“Is this about what I said yesterday?” She wings it, only assuming the conversation was about Alicia, or Lexa as it may be. 

Madison is tense, “I told you, you have no right to have an opinion about my relationships with my children.” 

“Relationships? You have a beautiful, smart, funny daughter you don't pay any attention to, a son you pay way too much attention to and a step-son you practically treat as invisible.”

Madison steps forward with a clenched fist and Elyza now knows for a fact that the argument was about Alicia. She leans casually against the wall, arms crossed as Madison gets closer. “Why do you think you have any right to be here with us? We don't know you, we owe nothing to you. Why don't you just... go away?”

Elyza frowns in confusion as she states the obvious, “because I'm in love with your daughter.” She quickly thinks maybe it wasn't quite as obvious as she first thought when the room goes silent. She looks over Madison's shoulder to Alicia's wide green eyes and scrunches her nose, “that was probably really bad timing, right?” 

“You think?” Alicia squeaks, running to Elyza's side, calming her voice. “Mom, Elyza isn't going anywhere, everyone likes her being here except you, and if you can't accept that, maybe you should be the one to go.” She says it softly, as if anything louder would shatter the glass in the room. She takes Elyza's hand, gently pulling her away from the tension before it gets worse and leads her upstairs. They quickly change out of their wet clothes into something dry and half attempt to towel dry their hair. Noticing the ink Elyza left out earlier, Alicia grabs the black bottle and needle next to it, holding them out to her, “will you?” 

Elyza nods, uncharacteristic quiet when she sits on the bed, holding Alicia's right wrist, “this might hurt a bit.” The initial sting soon fades and her wrist turns comfortably numb as the needle presses into the skin. Elyza is about a quarter of the way through, the outline of Lexa's war paint standing out against the small trickle of blood, before she speaks up, “I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable downstairs.” 

“You didn't.” Elyza looks into her eyes for a minute, breathing out a sigh of relief and they spend the rest of most of the tattoo in the calmness of the room, wisely choosing to ignore the continued arguing downstairs.

“I have to ask though,” there's only a little section left to colour, “what's with the complete one-eighty? I mean, yesterday you were badly pretending that you didn't want me, and then earlier you had me pin you against a tree. What's up with that? Anything to do with Lexa's note?” 

Alicia's exhale is heavy and she closes her eyes, “honestly? Yes. And Abby..” Elyza raises her brow for her to continue. “They made me realise that one day, one of us are going to die. It could be tomorrow, a week from now, a year from now. Hell, we could even miraculously survive this thing, but in the end one of us will still die one day.”

“Positive thinking there, babe.”

“The point is, it's inevitable, but I'd rather have you here, now, in this moment, than spend my life wondering 'what if?' and that isn't fair to either of us.” 

Elyza completes the final corner with only a nod of acknowledgement, “done,” she whispers, grabbing a wipe so Alicia can see it properly.

Smiling a slight smile, Alicia breathes through her nose. “I love it,” she whispers in the same tone Elyza used. “Lyz?”

“Hmm?” Elyza distracts herself bandaging the small tattoo up.

“I love you.”

She pauses, grin spreading wide across her face, “really?”

Alicia's hand grips Elyza's jaw, forcing her to keep their intense eye contact. “Yes. Really.” 

Elyza pushes her until she's on her back, head resting lightly on the pillows beneath and Elyza hovering over her. “Good, because that means I can do this whenever I want.” 

Leaning down, Elyza runs her lips slowly, almost timidly, against Alicia's. The lazy, languid pace leaves them both content and they stay in that bubble for as long as possible until Elyza snaps back suddenly, her eyes growing wide and panicked, “what? What's wrong?”

“She rode my baby!” She screeches, “Leesh, Clarke rode my baby! When she went out with Chris, she rode her.” 

“Are you actually serious right now?” Alicia asks her incredulously. “You're really thinking about who has been riding your stupid fucking motorbike,” she pulls Elyza back on top on her with a grunt, “when you should be concentrating on riding me.”

Elyza rests on her elbows, smirking down, “that was awful.”

“You love it.”

“Yeah. I really do.” Elyza bites her lip and a cheeky grin appears on her lips before she leans down to whisper, “now what was that about me riding you, Heda?”

She'll never let Alicia live down the shudder that wrecks her body after that.

-_-_-_-_-_-

Clarke's eyes flutter to soft kisses being gently placed over her face, but her body soon protests any movements she tries to make to wake up, aching all over. “Try not to move too much, niron.” Lexa's voice helps to sooth her mind, even if her body feels like writhing in agony. “Open your eyes slowly, baby.” 

She does as instructed, smiling at Lexa's tender eyes, but then wincing at the anger she sees behind them, “why do I feel like a house fell on me? And why do you look like you want to kill somebody? Is it Madison? Can I help you?” She blinks hard twice, her other senses clearing as her head does and her eyes turn wide, neck spinning to take in the view, their view. “We're home.”

The words are whispered, a rhetorical statement needing no confirmation that Lexa barely hears, but she answers anyway, “sha.” 

Clarke's eyes widen, turning back to Lexa, “Lex! We're home!” She pounces on her, sending them both to the ground with a hard thud and Lexa laughs, her arms wrapping around Clarke's waist. “We're home,” she breathes one last time in a wistful sigh. Pain runs through her body again, but it's no where near as intense now that her mind has caught up to what's happening, “damn, what the hell did Elyza do to me?” She looks over them both, “and could they have not at least changed before coming up here?” 

Lexa laughs again, the anger in her eyes still present, but softening with Clarke's excitement. A light flow of rain starts over them and she blinks up at the sky, calculating that it is early morning and most of her people will probably still be resting. “We should head back, I'd like to throw a small celebration tonight in honour of our return.”

“How? You can hardly go back like 'so Clarke and I have been in a different reality for nearly a week. Surprise.'” 

Glaring, Lexa shrugs, “I'll think of something.” Standing, she extends her hand to Clarke to help her up, catching her when she sways slightly from a head rush, “careful.”

Clarke searches her eyes again. “There's no point in being angry until we know what happened.” She examines her bandaged hand, frowning before gasping in mock alarm, “wait, she didn't damage my face right?” 

“Your face is perfect as always, Clarke.”

“That was smooth.” Lexa smirks at her, leading them down the hill when they hear a soft sob from the trees. “Hello?” She wanders over and the cries get louder the closer she gets, Lexa behind her, fists clenching in lack of her trusty sword. They follow the sound for a few minutes until Clarke sees long, blonde hair behind one of the trees, but she's not prepared for the eyes that belong to the young girl face-to-face and she stumbles back, “oh my god.” 

Lexa steadies her, “what's wrong?” Receiving no answer, she looks over the crying girl in confusion, who looks to be no older than thirteen summers and she bends down to her after making sure Clarke could stay stood. “Heya goufa, chit's yu're name?”

Green eyes, filled with tears, look up to her, and she hears a shaky response, “noma eit.”

“Noma eit?” Frowning after the girl nods, Lexa continues. “Where laik yu kom?”

“Boudalan.”

“The Rock Line?” Another nod. “Can yu speak Gonasleng?” Another. “What are you doing out of your clan?” The girl doesn't answer so Lexa pushes on. “You can talk to me. My name is Leksa kom Trikru.”

The girl's eyes snap fully open, her tears halting, “H-Heda?” Lexa bows her head in conformation. “I heard rumours that our clan leader, Lucas, was due to fight Wanheda and I found a way to escape. I wanted to watch him die, but he didn't and now- I can't go back there, Heda.” Her tears start flowing again, body shivering from both the rain and her scared whimpers. 

Lexa holds her, asking no further questions just yet when she notices how thin and exhausted she looks. She pulls her up into her arms and feels the tight grip around her neck, “let's get you something warm to eat.” Turning, Lexa sees Clarke staring at the girl still, watching every movement with eyes that appear void. “Clarke?” She uses her free hand to run it over Clarke's cheek, smiling softly when the blue eyes she loves so much finally focus back on her. “Hodnes, would you like to tell me what's wrong?”

“It's her, Lex,” she whispers, forgetting that the girl can hear her. “She's older in this world, but it's her, I know it. It's Sarah.” 

Lexa's throat bobs at the crack in Clarke's voice and she breathes deeply through her nose, fighting the urge to hold Clarke and murmur soothing words. “We should all get out of this rain.” 

They all head back in silence, and Lexa's thinks the girl in her arms has fallen asleep, but as they reach the door to Polis tower, she lifts her head. “I like the name Sarah, can I keep it?” 

Clarke swallows down a hard cry, words choked as she answers, “of course you can, sweetie. You can be called whatever you want to be.” 

Reaching the kitchen area, Lexa sits Sarah on a stool and makes her way through the doors, the aroma of fresh bread filling the area and her stomach grumbles. “Heda, to what do we owe the pleasure?”

“Emori,” she smiles, “we have a... delicate situation.” She shifts her eyes over to Clarke and Sarah, watching fondly as Clarke checks the girl over almost protectively. “I'm sorry to bother you in your breakfast preparations, but would it be possible to get something substantial for the little one?” 

“Of course. May I ask who she is?”

“We're still trying to figure everything out, but I promise you I will reward your efforts for this.”

“Nonsense, Heda. You have done enough for John and I, I'll always be in your debt,” Emori says with a grateful expression.

Lexa smiles, “John Murphy helped save my life. It is I that will always be in his.” 

Laughing, Emori shakes her head, “don't let him hear you say that. He might take advantage.” She winks, and Lexa joins her laughter. “I'll be out with your food in a short while.”

Clarke stealthily wipes away a tear when Lexa reaches them and she wraps her arms around Clarke's waist from behind, “you could not save her in her other life, maybe you are meant to save her in this one.” 

They both watch as Sarah glances around in wonder, her tears only known now through the streaks left on her cheeks and it isn't long before three plates are placed in front of them, Emori not saying a word as she returns to the kitchen. “I want to. I need to help her, Lex.” 

Sarah demolishes her food, and she looks up embarrassed when she feels two pairs of eyes on her. “I'm sorry, it's been a long time since I've had anything other than scraps.” Lexa's hands grip the table. “There are fifteen of us, we're used for making things that go out for trade.” 

“How long?” Clarke asks.

“I've been there before I can remember. We thought, maybe, when Lucas took over as clan leader after his dad died, we might be freed, but it only got worse. More hours, more work, less breaks. We were chained at night so we couldn't run away.” Her tears start up again.

Lexa seethes, anger rising and Clarke wishes she could do something to calm her, but she's just as mad, “does your whole clan know of this?”

Sarah shrugs, “I don't know, Heda, our camp is an hours ride from our main village from what I guessed, the only people we saw were Lucas, his dad before he died, and a few men working for them.”

Clarke reaches over, holding Sarah's hand, “I swear to you, we will do everything we can to make sure you're safe and we will be saving the other children in your camp. Lucas will pay for what he has done.” 

Before any more can be said, Emori re-emerges, collecting the plates with a raised brow, but makes no comment. Lexa stops her, “Emori, I have one more request-”

“There is already a bath running, Heda.” She hold her hand out for Sarah to take, but fear clouds her eyes again and she looks back to Clarke and Lexa.

Clarke nods at her, “it's okay, Sarah, you'll be safe with Emori, we'll be right here when you've finished.” Sarah nods, cautiously holding her hand out for Emori to take. “Mochof, Emori.” She recieves only a slight nod and she stares as the two make their way through the kitchen. “What are we going to do?”

“Clarke?”

Her name echoes around the room and she smiles, a breath of relief escaping her lips when she turns, “Octavia.” 

She runs into Clarke's arms, squeezing tighter than she knows is necessary, “you're back,” she whispers.

A growl behind them startles them both and Clarke is quick to turn again, pushing Lexa's shoulders. “Nou. You don't get to take your anger out on her.” 

“Explain. Everything.”

Octavia takes a timid step back, “Lukas kom Boudalan questioned your loyalty to the Coalition, Lexa. He claimed you favoured Skaikru and called Clarke weak. He challenged Elyza and lost, used a knife in a fight with no weapons. His second in command will be arriving soon.”

“And you let this happen?” 

“Lexa stop,” Clarke steps in. “You know as well as I do that if you, or Alicia, would've done something to stop this his point would have been proven right. You made the right call, Octavia.” 

Lexa takes a long breath, “where is he now?” 

“He's being held in one of the cells until the ambassadors come to a decision of his fate.” Octavia glances between them, sensing something more is going on.

Clarke shakes her head, “his fate is no longer in their hands. Lucas has been using children as slaves,” Octavia gasps, “you say his second will be here soon? Gather the ambassadors, we will meet in one hour.” Nodding, Octavia rushes off and Clarke turns back to Lexa, bringing her hands up to Lexa's face, “hey, hey.” She waits a moment until she sees green eyes soften, “that's it.” 

Lexa shakes, eyes apologetic, “I'm sorry, ai hodnes.”

Running her thumbs along Lexa's cheek bones, Clarke sighs, “it's okay.”

“It's not.”

“Maybe not. But it's understandable you losing your temper.” She feels Lexa's arms back around her waist, head resting on her shoulder where a small kiss is placed. 

Lexa grips her tighter, trying her best not to hold Clarke too tight around her bruised ribs, but there's frustrated energy seeping from her still shaking limbs, and she can't wait to come face-to-face with this Lucas. Movement from behind Clarke catches her eye, and though her brow grimaces, her mouth perks, “you may want to look behind you.”

Clarke barely has time to whisper, 'mom', before she's knocked back by the force of Abby hugging her and Lexa takes a step back to give them some space, “where do you think you're going?” Abby grabs her wrist, bringing her into the hug as well and Lexa stiffens, back straight and hands gripping down her sides. Clarke laughs, but makes no move to stop Abby, only encourages by slinging her own arm around Lexa, pulling her in tighter.

Lexa's eyes are still wide in shock, jaw moving up and down, when they all finally pull away and Clarke laughs once more, “mom, I think you broke my girlfriend.” Abby pays no attention to her words as her hands run up and down Clarke's face, making her giggle again, “mom, stop.”

“Shush, just let me look at you.”

“You see me almost every day.”

“Who else knows, Abby?” Lexa finally speaks up, voice more confident than she looks.

Abby smiles at her, moving to rest one hand on her shoulder, “just Raven, Octavia and I. Luckily Raven and Octavia found them first since Elyza held no qualms about introducing herself.” 

Clarke rolls her eyes, “of course.”

“Now,” Abby starts, “tell me everything.” 

The door to the kitchen opens, and Sarah runs back, gripping on to Lexa's arm, freshly washed and clothed. “Later. Mom, I'd like you to meet Sarah. Sarah, this is my nomon, Abby.” Abby looks at her confused, and she turns to Lexa, “why don't you take her to Aden? We can hardly have her attend the meeting.” Lexa nods, picking Sarah up once more, murmuring things Clarke can't hear after she kisses Clarke's cheek, making her way to the Nightblood camp. “We found her on the hill and-” her voice breaks off into a sob, and Abby brings her into a hug, petting Clarke's head.

“You don't have to tell me anything yet. Why don't we go and get you into some clean clothes?” Clarke nods, and they make their way to her room. 

She breathes out a sigh of relief when they enter, taking in the familiar surroundings and it's not long until Raven makes her appearance known, crashing through the doors. “So it's true that little Griff is back,” she plops on the back with a smirk, “it's a shame really, I really liked Elyza. Alicia was alright too I suppose.” Clarke scoffs in offence, changing her top, “still can't complain about the view though.”

“Raven.”

“Sorry Abby. You know you'll always be my sugar mama.” They both scowl at her and she holds her hands up in surrender. “So, Clarke, you looking forward to your first training session with Indra?”

“My what?”

-

“Where are we going?”

“You will be staying with my most promising novitiate, Aden. You will be safe with him whilst Clarke and I deal with your clan leader.”

“I don't want to leave you again.”

Lexa sighs, coming to a stop in front of Aden's door, stroking a strand of hair behind Sarah's ear, “it will only be for a few hours. Trust me, no harm will come to you under Aden's care. I would not leave you with him if I didn't see him fit, and Clarke would not have suggested it if she didn't.”

Sarah nods, unwrapping herself from Lexa and stands patiently when Lexa knocks on Aden's door. Her nervous anticipation dissipates as soon as Aden opens the door though, not the least bit intimidated by a yawning teen with scruffy hair, rubbing his eyes of sleep and she giggles when he sees who is at the door, back suddenly straight and hands behind his back, chest out. She also notices Lexa's slight smirk at him. “Heda?”

“Aden. I apologise for waking you so early.” 

“Of course not, Heda, what do you need?”

Lexa smiles softly down at Sarah, keeping her hand at the back of her hair. “Aden this is Sarah, I need you to watch over her for a few hours, Clarke and I have a meeting to attend. I wouldn't be putting this on you if I had another option. She's special.”

With those last two words, Aden's stoic face falters, “I'll protect her with my life, Lexa.” He looks over to Sarah, “Clarke has been showing me a game called 'chess', would you like to play?”

Grinning, Sarah looks over to Lexa once more to gain some confidence, marching her way past Aden, “mochof, Aden.”

“Pro, Heda.”

Making her way back to the tower, she is stopped by Ryder, “Wanheda says she has laid out some clean clothes for you, and that she will see you in the meeting room.” She nods once in thanks, quickly changing and entering the room already filled with her ambassadors and generals.

She walks silently to her throne and sits, watching as the others follow her, allowing one empty seat, Clarke sat to her right, Octavia stood between them and Indra standing in her usual place at her left. She turns to Octavia, “has he arrived?” Octavia gestures to the guards by the doors and they open them, an average height, muscled man appearing. “You are second in command to Lukas kom Boudalan?”

He kneels in front of her. “Sha, Heda. Ai laik Tomos kom Boudalan.”

“How are your leaders chosen Thomas?” Clarke pipes up, shifting forward in her seat.

“My clan's leaders are by birth right. But; Lucas has no yongon so his title shall fall to me.”

Lexa cocks her head, “for now.” She ignores the look of confusion Thomas gives her. “Please sit, Tomos, we have much to discuss.” Lifting her head to the guards, her voice commands the room, “bring in the accused.” Lucas is dragged in, bound and gagged, thrown roughly on the ground and his grunt of pain from his uncared for shoulder echoes in the small space. “We gather today to decide the fate of this natrona, for his sin of using an unpermitted weapon in a challenge. However, there is new evidence brought forward you may all wish to hear.”

The rooms stays silent and Lexa watches as Lucas' eyes turn to fear. She looks at Clarke to begin. “Earlier, the Commander and I were in the hills and we came across a child. I believe you refer to her as number eight, Lucas.” 

Thomas, already glaring at the man, frowns, “Wanheda, I do not understand.”

“He, and his father before him, have been forcing children into slavery. We already know of one camp, and I will be sending riders after this meeting to collect the others,” Lexa continues, “number eight, now known as Sarah, is safe now as will be the others in her camp. We do not know how many there are.” She examines each of the ambassadors, reading their expressions and is glad when they all seem to be filled with disgust. 

“I say will kill him,” Roan speaks up, clenching his fists on the arm of his chair. Murmurs of agreement filter through the room, but Lexa keeps an eye on an eerily silent Thomas, his jaw locked and eyes blazing.

Clarke steps in once more, “for his act against the coalition, I say we give him twenty lashes, but don't kill him. Jus drein nou jus daun.” Voices raise, and Clarke holds up her hand, causing Lexa to arch her brow. It goes quiet. “That being said, this crime is against his own people, so I believe he should be punished in a way Thomas sees fit. How are your people punished for their crimes?”

“For serious crimes such as this, the accused are hung by their wrists in the town centre for one moon, and any who wish to, may throw a rock into a basket behind them, stretching their limbs. If they survive, they are banished from our land.” Thomas explains this through grit teeth, holding himself back from killing his old leader to not cause a scene.

Lexa nods, thinking it over, “I think that is adequate. Chit say yo?” Most ambassadors are reluctant to agree, but do so after Lexa stares them down. “Then it is done. Keep your fastest riders available, we do not know how far into our lands these camps go. Tomos, make sure he stays alive long enough to gather the information we need. The children found will be brought either here, the Floukru or the Podakru as we have the best medicines and healers. Once they are at full strength, they will be returned to the Rock Line.” She flicks her attention to the two ambassadors mentioned, both women agreeing. “Good. King Roan, I would like you to escort Tomos en Lukas on your way home and oversee both his punishments. Report anything you get back to me.”

“Sha, Heda.”

“Is there any other business?” She receives silence. “Very well, this meeting is adjourned. I will hopefully see you all again after the next full moon. Take Lucas back to his cell and prep him for his return home at first light tomorrow.” 

Clarke comes to stand behind her, resting her hand on Lexa's shoulder as the ambassadors file out, but her voice fills the room, “Tomos, hod op.” 

He spins around, walking back to Lexa's throne and bows his head, waiting until the room holds only the three of them. “Heda? Wanheda?”

“Before we let you go with Lucas, I need to know where your loyalties lie. I will not be accused once again of favouring Skaikru, and I will not stand for Clarke or any other of my ambassadors being called weak.” 

Quickly, Thomas kneels before them both, head bowed, “I assure you, Heda, that while I lead my people, we will be completely loyal to both you and the Kongeda. My brother was turned ripa at the mountain. Unfortunately, he did not survive such a fate, but his houmon en yongon both live in the peace that the Maunon were brought down. My personal loyalty will also always be with Wanheda. I swear to you, I had no clue of what was happening.” 

Lexa stares him down, anticipated silence filling the void of the room for minutes. “I believe you. We will be having a small celebration tonight in honour of our strongest Coalition to date, I would enjoy your attendance there if you wish,” Lexa tells him, and he looks back up to her, a grateful smile gracing his lips, “please inform the others, it will begin at sundown.” He confirms with a tilt of his head, leaving just the two of them in the room.

A knock on the door shortly after brings Indra to them, bowing her head slightly, “Clarke, I understand that your main role is to be a healer, but watching you fight yesterday, there is a warrior inside. Octavia can learn nothing more from me, I would like you to become my new Seken. I know you were planning on training with Heda, but I will not hold back. If Heda permits of course.” It's the closest to rambling Indra will ever get and it leaves an amused grin on their faces.

“Clarke is free to do as she pleases.”

Clarke's mouth is marginally agape, Indra staring deep into her eyes, waiting for an answer, but eventually she lets herself smile, “it would be my honour.”

“We begin at sunrise the day after tomorrow.”

Groaning after Indra makes her leave, Clarke sets herself in Lexa's lap, “she's going to kill me.”

Lexa laughs, running her thumb over Clarke's hip, “I'm sure you will be fine, hodnes. I am going to go and train with the Nitblidas', you should go and catch up with your mom, Raven and Octavia before the party tonight.” Smirking, Lexa leans in for a chaste kiss, “I told you I'd find a way.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just don't waste all of your energy, I plan on taking advantage of your drunk state tonight.” 

“I do not get drunk, Klark.”

“No? Tell that to Monty's moonshine.” Clarke stands, aiming to make her way out of the room but yelps when Lexa pinches her ass. “You know, I'm pretty pissed that I went to all that effort to leave a present for Alicia and Elyza and all I get in return is stitches and bruised ribs.”

Lexa stands with her, leading them down the hallway, “I'm sure they had more to learn from us than we did them. They are young in both age and mind, they probably didn't think much about us. Now go and spend time with your friends.”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“Yes. Go away.”

“Rude.”

They spend the rest of the day separated. Clarke does as Lexa suggests, taking in Raven's explanation of the science behind the black holes, thanking Octavia for keeping them all alive, and reconnecting with Abby after seeing the bad relationship between mother and daughter in the other world. Lexa trains mostly with Aden, watching Sarah out of the corner of her eye watch the smooth movements they make with swords in wide-eyed wonder and then settles the Nitblidas' down with a class about the possibilities of different realities. 

The celebration is already in full swing when they both make it down, Lexa halts it for a moment to re-welcome the Rock Line and they all cheer, continuing their drinking and dancing. After a few hours, Abby makes her way over with Marcus, staggering and voice slurring, “Lexa, thank you, for taking care of my daughter.” She holds her arm out and Lexa takes it, shaking once. “I'm sorry if I've offended you in any way, I'll try not to be so over-protective in future.”

Clarke laughs, her own voice starting to slur, “mom, you're drunk.”

“Maybe. But I will still mean it in the morning.” The music slows, “oh, let's dance.” She grabs Marcus by his upper arm, his face horrified, but when he has Abby draped over him, he relaxes, swaying them side to side. 

Looking between Lexa and Abby, Clarke smiles, “maybe we did get a gift after all.” Shaking her head, she holds her hand out to Lexa, “may I have this dance, Commander?” Lexa grins, letting Clarke lead the way, her hands on Clarke's hips and Clarke's around her neck. Clarke takes in her surroundings with a drunk smile, Marcus dancing with her mom, Octavia and Lincoln to her side and Raven and- “oh my god,” she gasps through a giggle and Lexa furrows her brow. “Look! Is that Raven and-”

“Niylah.” Lexa growls, eyes narrowing at the pair.

Clarke grips around her neck tighter, moving to whisper in her ear, “I love it when jealous Lexa comes out to play.”

Just as Lexa starts to deny this ridiculous accusation for what feels like the hundredth time, 'I am Heda, Clarke, I have no reason to be jealous', they feel a tug at their side and look down to see Sarah. “I'm tired.”

“Okay, I will arrange for Ryder to set you up a room.” Sarah blushes, looking away. “What?”

“May I stay with Aden?” She mumbles, “it's just that, I like playing chess with him and I feel safe when he's there.” 

Clarke and Lexa chuckle and Clarke looks over to the boy in question bouncing on his feet from right to left, “go on then. But just for tonight, alright?” Sarah nods eagerly before running over to him, his face split in a grin, leading her to his hut. “I don't want her to go home.”

“She is home, niron. I will be discussing the situation with Thomas before he leaves tomorrow.”

Lexa's moan is the first thing Clarke registers as she realises just how quickly she shot forward to deeply kiss her, blocking out the cat-calls and the 'get it, Heda,' she knows are coming from Octavia and Raven respectively. Lexa pulls back, glaring over at Raven, but unwittingly focusing her glare at Niylah instead. Clarke grabs her jaw in a rough tug, “you're jealous, I'm slightly drunk, we haven't had sex in nearly a week, Lex, and honestly I'm really hot for you right now. Take advantage of me.”

Smirking, Lexa pecks Clarke's lips, “I thought you were going to try and take advantage of my drunken state?”

“I've changed my mind. Me first.” 

Clarke pulls her away by her hand, Lexa snickering behind her, “by all means, lead the way.”

-_-_-_-_-_-

All Octavia can see are empty paths. Empty paths that have white dotted lines in the middle and solid white lines on the edges. And vehicles. Abandoned vehicles dotted along these paths. She thinks they are roads, but they don't have roads in Polis, they only have trails, and the vehicles from Arkadia look nothing like the ones before her. 

She hears the roar of an engine coming towards her, blinking into the shining sun and she sees something far away from her, speeding closer until the shadow turns into something. A motorbike, she believes, with two figures on it. It pulls up in front of her before she even has time to register what's going on and the figures, two girls, stand up from where they were sat, the girl in front whipping out a gun, barrelling towards her, “I haven't got time for this.” Her blinks are harsh, eyes adjusting to the bright light crowding her irises. The voice sounds so familiar, but she can't quite place it.

“Elyza wait.” The other girl shouts, and the faces come into focus. “Octavia?”

“Alicia? Elyza? What the hell?” Octavia's mouth falls open and the two girls stop, Elyza lowering her gun.

“The fuck are you doing here?” The question is rhetorical, and Alicia brings her into a heavy hug.

“Babe, give her some room to breathe.” Elyza pulls Alicia off, and Alicia's arms wrap securely around her. “Octavia?”

In the back of her mind, Octavia is glad to see that these two have finally sorted their shit out, but her legs start pacing, mind running a million miles per minute, “oh no. No, no, no. This can't be happening. This can't be happening!” She stops dead in her tracks, eyes locking to the two pairs next to her, “we have to find Lincoln.”

Shooting up, Octavia's hand finds her rapid heartbeat, head still dizzy from alcohol and she looks to her side, sighing in relief when she sees Lincoln in bed next to her, “babe, go back to sleep.” His grumbles give her a sense of peace, but her mind is still racing. 

A dream. It was all a dream. But she has to find out for herself. Getting up, she tells Lincoln she'll be back in a minute and makes her way to Clarke and Lexa's room, grimacing when she hears the loud moans of Clarke's name rolling off of Lexa's tongue. Wincing, she looks between Ryder and Curtis, “how do you two put up with this every night?” They look at her in confusion, as if they'd seen her mouth move but the words weren't registering and it's then she sees the ear buds Raven had made for them and she shakes her head, banging on the door, “Clarke? Clarke!” She continues banging until she hears movement. A minute later Clarke is ripping open the door.

“What, Octavia? I'm kind of busy.”

“I know, I know, I'm sorry.” She hold her hands up, “it's just, I had a really strange dream that you and Lexa swapped bodies with Elyza and Alicia from another world.”

In her hazy, confused state, she doesn't notice Clarke hide her bandaged hand, “what the hell are you talking about? Who are Elyza and Alicia?” 

Letting out a breath, Octavia calms. “Nothing, no-one. Thank god, it was all just a dream. I'm sorry to disturb you.”

Clarke only smiles, “I think you had too much to drink tonight. It's late, go back to bed, O.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Sorry again, I just had to know, I'll let you get back to,” her hand moves in a wild gesture, “yeah. Goodnight, Clarke.”

Clarke waits until Octavia turns the hall to her own room before laughing and shutting the door again, smirking over at Lexa. “That was mean. She's not going to like you in the morning when she realises you were lying.”

Shrugging, Clarke settles back between Lexa's legs, “she'll forgive me when she finds out she's getting my old room tomorrow. Now, where were we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's the end. Thanks for coming along on the ride and I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> I'm expecting something along the lines of 'well what happened next with such-and-such', but please remember this was only set in the alternate universe, they're home now. I hope I've left this ending with enough closure, but also enough to use your awesome imaginations as to what happens next.
> 
> FYI: December is pretty slow in my job, so please feel free to send me some prompts over Tumblr if you'd like- realist-tash
> 
>  
> 
> Side note: please try to refrain from doing your own tattoos, and if the need does arise (again, please go to a professional) make sure the ink is compatible with your skin and the needle is sterile. Research!! But honestly, go to a trained tattooist.


End file.
